The Night of the Blue Moon
by Sabina V. Sinistra
Summary: Sarah has always known about her origins and her Duties as the Heir of the Angel Throne, but she refused all that for her father and a normal life. Years later she gives that up to save her people... By having to marry Jareth on the Night of the Blue Moon
1. Prologue: Not Even for the World

'People live, people die, people are born and grow every second in a thousand different parallel worlds. People laugh, people cry and… people make each other laugh and cry. They are magical, sometimes blessing and sometimes condemning, never ending walking contradictions. We? What are we, are you asking? We are watchers… of the past, of the present, of the future and of a million more things. We warm, but humans don't listen. We warm to the All Mighty ones and they do listen, but they often don't like to follow our advises… I guess they will learn to respect us the hard way. They don't fully accept us as a species of their kind, but they do recognize our power and seek our help. We are Watchers… But some races call us Healers or Angels. We are pure, dark creatures of the Mist…'- Fragment of Queen Serene of the Red Moon, regent of the Angel Race from 5000 a. C. to 250 a. C.  
  
Prologue: Not even for the World:  
  
The morning newspapers were the ones that brought little nine-year-old Sarah Williams the news of the death of her mother. The little raven- haired, opal-eyed girl tried to feel something, but she really wasn't all that touched. After all, her mother was for her just a vague image, a distant and beautiful woman who had success by abandoning her family.  
  
"Hi Sarah…" her father tried to greet her cheerfully, but she knew he knew. And, when he spotted the newspaper in the little girl's hands he realized that she knew also.  
  
"I'm sorry, darling" he whispered to her. But Sarah didn't look sad… She looked almost scared.  
  
"They are coming for me… And I don't want to be taken from here, daddy. Make them go away, please!" the little kid cried, running towards her dad and hugging him tightly. Fear suddenly crept over Robert Williams.  
  
"She told me they didn't know about you, Sarah… She told me not even YOU knew about them! She promised me you were going to be safe from them!" he gasped for air, adrenaline running through his veins suddenly…  
  
"I saw them in my dreams, daddy… they said I was a dreamer and their only hope… They said I should take care of them and of their land, because I was the he… he… What's the word? Oh, yes, HEIR"  
  
She was trembling in her father's hands, who felt utterly powerless. And, when a tiny mist began snaking its way to them, he held his daughter tighter. They were there…  
  
"Show yourselves! This is my home and I demand to see you!"  
  
In the middle of the mist two lonely figures appeared. They had sparkling eyes, silver hair and… wings… White, feather wings on their backs, making them look…  
  
Angelic.  
  
"You know why we have come here, Robert Williams… So don't fight us" a cold voice echoed through the room. One of the 'angels' stepped out of the mist and bowed deeply in front of Sarah. She noticed that the creature was a male.  
  
"No… I don't want you or your land! Not… not even for the World! I thought I had made it clear in my dream last night!" the little girl shouted, scared out of her wits. She ran to hide behind her father, who had a furious look in his face.  
  
"Leave her alone… You have no right to take her. Linda promised me you were never going to even touch her!" he yelled, his voice full of anger. The other 'angel' stepped forward and out of the thick fog. That angel was female and bowed before Sarah and her father.  
  
"We seek your forgiveness, but we had no other choice" she spoke with a melodic voice "My name is Adriana and he is my twin brother Adrian. We are the new elected Helpers and Twin Advisors of the new queen-to- be of our Realm… That would be Sarah, Sir"  
  
Robert Williams, body trembling, shook his head.  
  
"No… you have no right to put that kind of burden over my little girl's shoulders" he shot back with a shaking voice.  
  
Both twins looked at each other and partially nodded while sighed.  
  
"You have got a point, Mr. Williams but we are afraid that your daughter is the only remaining of an almost extinguished line of Rulers. We need her. Our kingdom is being threatened. Our people are afraid… Please, I beg you, understand!" the woman angel pleaded, her crystal clear eyes gazing at the small family of two members with a sad look. Sarah's heart broke at the sight of the sadness of those eyes.  
  
"I… I am sorry" she whispered but her father shook his head and held her tight.  
  
"No, my darling, you have nothing to apologize for, do you hear me? They are the ones that should be apologizing to you. You have done nothing wrong, hon" he told her with passion, hating to see his daughter cry. She was too good…  
  
"Leave us be… She doesn't want to be you Queen. When Linda walked away from us she swore nobody of her kind would ever bother Sarah… She promised! And you and your kind honor your promises, I know that!" he thundered. Adrian looked upset but admired the man's braveness and caring for his little girl. Adriana looked terrified.  
  
"He is right" she slowly whispered "We can't break a promise made by a Royal member of our Kind, Adrian"  
  
Her twin seemed tempted to do so first but then nodded gravely.  
  
"You are right, sister" he sighed, his wings hugging his body in a mourning angel position "We are doomed" he declared and, with that, he disappear in a shower of feathers and mist. Adriana sighed too but her eyes had a twinkle… the twinkle of hope. She bowed in front of Sarah and looked at her with respect before speaking:  
  
"I know we have no right to ask so much of you, little one, but I do hope that one day… maybe when you are older and wiser and more prepare, you will reclaim your right to become our queen. I think… you would make a good Sovereign. I really do. Till our paths cross again, Your Highness"  
  
With those last words she disappeared in a similar fashion of his brother and the Williams were alone again.  
  
"It's over hon… We won. You get to stay here forever…" Robert Williams exclaimed happily. Sarah smiled too, but it was a sad smile.  
  
"Yes, daddy… But they really needed me"  
  
Author's Note: Yes, it isn't enough having to write The Masks we Wear; now my mind is making me write another story at the same time! Damn my imagination to the Bog! Well now I am facing quite a challenge because now I am making Robert and Karen good people and good parents! Especially Robert, as you have seen in this prologue… It's quite a change from my other fanfic, isn't it? I hope I don't screw up!  
  
Well, I hope you liked this little prologue. So, yes, Sarah isn't a fairy or anything of the sort, she is an angel! Well, half angel anyway… That was the first twist of the overused plot 'Sarah is a magic Princess/Queen'. I intend to explain more about the Watchers, also called Healers and Angels. But don't rush me because I have to juggle this new story, school and The Masks we Wear. Fortunately my muse paid me a visit yesterday and told me the way to continue the story. By the way she says Hi to all the readers…  
  
Anyway till my next post,  
  
Sabina (or the poor, exhausted and a little freak author) 


	2. Chapter One: Drawn to the Inevitable

Chapter I: Drawn to the Inevitable: Sarah Williams woke up with a start. With heavy breaths she tried to control her racing heart as her mind played over and over again the terrible nightmare she had just had.  
  
"I t was so. vivid" she whispered to herself. She hopped out of her bed, knowing that she wouldn't be able to sleep for a long time. It was past midnight on a stormy night and she shivered because of the low temperature. Her bare feet felt the coldness of the floor and it sent shills running through her spine as she walked to Toby's room, to make sure she hadn't awoke him. After checking he was soundly asleep she went to the kitchen to make herself a nice cup of honey tea. There she encountered Robert Williams reading a newspaper. Yes, she still lived with her parents despite she was a woman with a promising singer carrier. She loved her family, that was the reason she stayed with them. If she had wanted, she could have moved to an expensive apartment, because her new album had brought her a little fortune.  
  
"Dad, it's almost one o'clock in the morning. What on Earth are you doing here?" she asked, confused. Her father smiled and pointed at the newspaper.  
  
"Jut reading, hon. I have insomnia" he replied nonchalantly as he sipped some coffee from a black mug he was holding in his right hand. "What about you?"  
  
"I. I had a nightmare, just that" she replied as casually as she could but Robert frowned at the mention of the word 'nightmare'.  
  
"A vision, darling?" he asked softly while Sarah reached for a tea bag and a mug.  
  
"I hope not. Everyone was dying. My friends." she shook her head to be rid of the horrible images that started to plague her mind. "He. he is in trouble"  
  
"Who is in trouble, Sarah?" her father enquired. But she knew he didn't know about. about HIM and she didn't want him to know either (No girl in her senses would like her father to find out about close encounters of the X kind with handsome, sexy, tight wearing Goblin King, that's an understatement dear readers).  
  
". Nobody you know, Daddy. just a person I met long ago, nobody important." she lied, her voice trailing off as she sipped a bit of her tea and smiled, the warmness of the infusion starting to relax her.  
  
"Well, honey, try to get some sleep. I'm sure it was just a bad dream" her father assured her, kissing her cheek and sending her upstairs with a slight push.  
  
"Yes, I am sure of it. goodnight, daddy. Sweet dreams" the twenty four- year-old woman whispered.  
  
"Dreams, Sarah" replied her father, with a touch of concern on his deep voice.  
  
  
  
Sarah tossed and turned, her mind trying to escape from the vision she was about to have. She hated the feeling of lightheadedness that overpowered her every time. As the power of the 'dream' began to win over her will she stopped fighting and contemplated the dream-like scene that started to form around her with a feeling of: 'Here we go again'  
  
Dream:  
  
There were lots of winged people; that was for sure. They all wore tunics of different colors, from the purest shade of white to the darkest form of black. The gossiped, whispering with melodious voices and glancing around in a conspiracy manner. They all had odd shades of hair and eyes and their skin was as pale as snow.  
  
They were Angels.  
  
They practically irradiated wisdom and serenity, all of them except for one. An angel with auburn hair and brown eyes, with a crown and an overloaded dress that would put the Queen of whatever realm in shame. Sarah recognized her immediately.  
  
Linda Williams.  
  
She had two rings on each finger and a hundred glittering tiny bracelets adorning her arms. From her ear hung diamond earrings that matched her huge diamond necklace and she had a diamond belt too. She was spinning, giggling like a schoolgirl, though she was a grown-up woman. Two angels were shaking their heads in disapproval as they glared at her.  
  
"You Highness; that is not the appropriate behavior for a Princess" they whispered to her. "And you are married and with a daughter. You can't act childish anymore"  
  
Linda Williams frowned, looking displeased.  
  
"That's not fair!" she cried with exasperation. The couple of angels sighed and rolled her eyes.  
  
"Adriana, Adrian, how is the little Princess?" one of the two angels, a female, asked. Two teenagers appeared, with a four year old child in their arms. It had dark hair and opal eyes that glowed with a thousand different colors.  
  
"She is safe and playing with us, Aunt Leticia. She loves to see magic being performed. She is strong" the teenage girl replied, tossing a strand of silver hair away from her eyes. Her twin nodded, caressing lightly the cheek of the little girl he was holding.  
  
"She is gentle and caring. A wonderful little angel" he stated almost proudly.  
  
"How can this be.? From a spoiled little brat came a wonderful ruler?" Linux, the other angel near Linda, asked with awe.  
  
"Maybe she is the answer to our prayers. If we could make that little one marry the Ruler of the Underground. then we would be saved" Leticia suggested. The little kid titled her head, apparently curious.  
  
"Sarah. and Jareth?" she asked. Everybody stared at her.  
  
"How did she know his name?" Adriana mumbled.  
  
"I know. a voice told me. It tells me everything I want to know" the girl cryptically replied.  
  
"The girl has a great connection with the Great Ones." some angel said aloud.  
  
And everyone nodded.  
  
  
  
Sarah woke up more relaxed. She had had that very same dream when she was ten. She found out about her so called engagement with the King of the goblins that way, but as she wasn't going to accept the throne of the angel Realm the engagement was supposedly off.  
  
She had fantasized about him ever since the dream. What would he look like? Was he real or it had just been a dream? Was she really an angel or she had imagined everything? She did not dare ask her father because, if it was true, he wouldn't be pleased about the engagement. So, one night when she was fifteen, she called him, using poor Toby as an excuse, praying to Heaven that everything was a lie. but no, it had been real. It was real. He was real.  
  
And that was simply not fair! All her duties as a princess were not fair. Why should she marry for the sake of a faraway land and a race of people that hadn't bothered to look for her until they needed her anyway?  
  
She had acted childish that night because she was so angry. With everyone, with her mother, with Adrian and Adriana, her whole family in fact.  
  
And, on top of that she had been nervous. What if he discovered her past? Her past as princess Sarianka. That was her angel name. It sounded so. so odd and yet so familiar. Aloof, elegant but. impersonal. Yes, that was it. The name was impersonal. Not like Sarah.  
  
"Go to sleep Sarah. Forget them, live a life, for the love of the Underground!" she chastised herself aloud. But. sleep evaded her all night.  
  
  
  
  
  
Robert Williams knew he wasn't hearing voices or going crazy. They were whispering. Again.  
  
"Can't you just live her alone? She is my little girl, and I won't let you get to her!" he warned. Karen, who was bringing her husband some tea, shook her head.  
  
"They have been quite insistent these last weeks. Do you know the reason, darling?" she asked quietly.  
  
Karen was a rational person so she had quite a hard time accepting that her stepdaughter was a mystical queen from a faraway land of Angels.  
  
"Remember Robert when you first told me about. Lindara (Linda's real name) and the whole Angel thing when Sarah was fifteen?" the blonde (I know she is not a real blonde but. whatever). She had practically threatened to call the nuthouse. Till she calmed down and Sarah started telling her things. intimate things about her life as a child she knew with the help of the so called Great Ones. She didn't like to ask anything to them, but it had served as a proof to Karen.  
  
She had felt a little weird first but, amazingly, the whole experience of getting to know her stepdaughter's freaky side brought them close together. They learned first to respect each other and they finally grew close as mother and daughter.  
  
"I'm worried about her, Karen. She listens to the whispers and frowns. I know she wants to help them, I can see that in her face. Sooner or later she'll go to them. they will take my little girl away" Robert whispered harshly. Karen smiled kindly and said:  
  
"She is not your little girl anymore. She is a woman. A mature, grown up and responsible woman. She will do what her hearts tells her too. And that is the best way to live a life, Robert, no matter what"  
  
  
  
  
  
'Please, Sarianka. Accept you fate!' a deep voice shouted at her. Sarah Williams raised her gaze from the book she was reading, surprised. The whispers always had been whispers, never yells. Something was wrong.  
  
"Who are you?" she finally asked with a serene voice. Three voices answered in unison:  
  
"Why do you ask questions for which you already know the answers?" The girl dropped her book then and stared wide-eyed at the air in front of her.  
  
"You are The Great Ones, aren't you?" she rather affirmed, standing up from her bed. "Why do you seek me? It has been almost four years since I last called upon you."  
  
'We respect your silence, Sarianka, but we can't let our race die. We need your help" they replied, always in unison. Sarah shook her head.  
  
"Don't call me that. I like my Aboveground name. And I will not help you. You can't force me and you know it so leave me alone" she spat at the ceiling where the voices came from.  
  
'It's a matter of time before your nature and blood force you to face the problem, Sarianka. We are asking gently, but you know deep inside that you will not tolerate to know that your kind is suffering!" the Great Ones thundered. Sarah's eyes flashed and a wind started dancing around her.  
  
"I said leave me alone! I've suffered enough as it is!" she yelled and the voices quieted. She sighed tiredly and sat on the bed, her head on her hands.  
  
"Why me?" she asked gently to the air that, suddenly, had calmed down.  
  
  
  
Author's note: Hey, I'm back! Fanfiction.net is back too! Yeah! I've missed my readers and my authors a lot and I was so worried about the future of this site. Well, the webmaster or webmistress of this site must be a Hell of a fellow. Thanks a lot and keep up this great site. At last an update! It feels so good.! (Yes, I realize I am overreacting but just follow me on this). Come on, I know you've missed Fanfition.net, you just can't deny it! Well, it's good to be back.  
  
Hugs and peaches for you all,  
  
Your Royal Whichness. err, I mean The Author 


	3. Capter Two: Guilty Visions

Chapter II: Guilty Visions 'We were strangers, starting out on a journey.  
  
Never dreaming what we had to go through.  
  
Now here we are and I'm suddenly standing.  
  
At the Beginning with You'  
  
  
  
Sarah's voice faltered as fear crept over her soul. She apologized to the crew working with her in the recorder Studio.  
  
"I am a little distracted" she mumbled as an apology. She had felt that way since her last talk with the great ones.  
  
Days filled with apprehension followed that evening. She could her cries of pain everywhere that were driving her mad. On the street, at University, on her house, while walking Merlin, everywhere. Painful and sometimes hypnotic cries, begging for mercy, for a savior. Begging for her. The called her their Rightful Queen. The lost Child, their Lady Mist. They said she was their only hope. they mentioned also a girl named Heratio. She remembered her well. Pale blond hair, ice-blue eyes, cynic smile. Her cousin. Yes, Heratio was her cousin. She was cold, selfish and a true witch. An enchantress of men. She was about her age and she remembered she had been bothering her all the time she had been visiting the angel realm when she had been four years of age.  
  
"She has done something. I knew she would cause only trouble the minute I saw her!" she cursed aloud as she made her way to the living room to fetch her Discman. Her father and Karen were both watching a movie on the couch so she bid the goodnight. She felt strange as she kissed her father's cheek and smiled at him.  
  
'It was like if. something was going to change our lives soon' she thought with apprehension. But there was nothing she could do except for sleep. Bad idea, by the way.  
  
  
  
Dream:  
  
It was a dark place, dimly illuminated by candles. There was a woman in the middle of the room, with crystal angels. And only members of the Royal Family of the angels had crystal wings.  
  
'Heratio' she whispered, but no one could hear her.  
  
A man walked to her slowly, like a feline but not quite. more like a wolf. Sarah shivered as she took on the features of the stranger: black hair and eyes like daggers of the same color, pale complexion, tall, and with a chilly smile that showed well his pointed teeth. He was dressed in dark, velvet clothes.  
  
'Heratio, run!!! That's definitely not a good company!' Sarah tried to warn but Heratio couldn't hear her. Darn.  
  
"My sweet little angel, everything it's coming up perfect for us. Little by little I am, with the help of your people, gaining strength in the Underground. I love to posses your little race. they are so useful"  
  
"Well, just remember that you owe me, dear Demian. I am their Queen, and I decide their fates because of my bond with you as your lover." Heratio replied coyly.  
  
"Yes, I know, and I remember, always." he grabbed her and spun her around, the angel giggling "Forever and ever, till the end of time" he whispered darkly and seductively. As they spun the scene changed. She saw a dark and dessert land, filled with the scent of death. and Hoggle, lying on the floor, looking very pale. and he wasn't moving and he was so cold. Death. as well as Sir Dydimus, lying with Ambrosias near the bog and Ludo, resting with the rocks forever. never opening his gentle eyes.  
  
"Please, stop! Stop showing me these things!" she begged but the Great Ones seemed to be deft to her pleas. They showed her winged-people. children even, locked up and with scars and blood running down horrible-looking wounds, dark circles around their eyes and. an expression of utter suffering.  
  
"No! You won't convince me!" she cried. So. they played their last card.  
  
They showed her a dark crystal cave. and a bed covered with white petals. There, lying peacefully and looking as handsome as ever, was Jareth, King of the Goblins and Ruler of the Underground. He was dressed with his white feather cape and the rest of the owl attire. His hair had blue highlights and his sharp features were softened a little. He was alive, as she checked.  
  
"He is sleeping" she whispered, almost relieved "Just sleeping" The Great Ones chuckled.  
  
'You are right, little one, but. he will never wake up. He has been poisoned with belladonna from the Underground. It causes the person that drinks it to be forever trapped in his dreams. He is gone. Or, at list, he will be soon.'  
  
"No! No! That can't happen! Please, please, don't let it happen!!" she begged, feeling tears watering her cheeks.  
  
"We can't do that, sadly. Only you can't prevent all that we showed you tonight" one of the Great Ones, named Future and had power over future visions, replied. Past and Present remained silent.  
  
And Sarah woke up, alone, in her dark bedroom.  
  
"You. bastard! You did all this on purpose. It's lame!" Sarah exploded. She calmed down a little before speaking again.  
  
"Heratio and. the other man were dressed regally. Where they attending a ball?" she asked in a low voice, a mere whisper.  
  
"Yes, a mask ball. It has already started, little one" replied Present, always the gentle and caring one. Future was the despotic and mysterious whereas Past was the dreamy and melancholic of the group.  
  
"Take me there. Dress me up, give me a mask and transport me there. I know you can do that easily" she finally told them, getting up from her bed.  
  
"What are you planning to do, Lady Sarah?" asked the Great Ones in unison. She stiffened a little.  
  
"Fix this matter! And. my name is Sarianka" she added quietly. She felt a slight pain on her back ad her wings spread, beautiful glimmering things made of the purest crystal and she felt her clothes shimmering too. And then, with a flash of light, she was gone.  
  
  
  
  
  
Author's note: I'm so depressed because I am going to have to beg again. Very few reviews indeed since FF.net went back to normal! Are you still there, readers? It is costing me more and more to do this chapters, so come on, keep reviewing.  
  
I thank the ones that review. It means a lot (as you probably already know cause I almost harass you with pleas of reviews, *sigh*). Anyway, till next chapter.  
  
Hugs and peaches from,  
  
'The Beggar'. err... I mean 'The Author' 


	4. Chapter Three: The Strongest Bond, Part ...

Chapter III: The Strongest Bond, Part I: The Ball was one of the biggest of the Underground it was the Midsummer's Night Masquerade, held in the Royal Castle of the Ruler of the Underworld, Jareth, King of the Goblins and High Fae.  
  
And it was going to be one Hell of a Night.  
  
Jareth was dressed to kill, with an odd, a hundred percent Goblin King Mixture of power, sex-appeal and darkness. His attire consisted on a black pair of tights and a black vest. Underneath the best there was a blood red silk shirt and he had leather high-boots and gloves and his Eternity Emblem (his personal symbol), was safe around his neck, as usual. He looked somber, cruel and yet irresistible. Purely Jareth.  
  
He was worried, but pretended otherwise. He knew that that night Demian, King of Nightmares, would claim to have the strongest bond to an angel. The Fae that possessed the strongest bond, according to the Underground law, would become the Patron and Master of the Race of the Angels, having power over even the Ruler of the Race. That was because the angels were considered beneath Fae so they had to be controlled by a High Fae (King or Queen of a land). The Fae that possessed the bond would have lot of power, because angels were power. The power to see Past, present and future and to contact the Great Ones, Gods of the Underworld.  
  
Jareth had been the angels Mentor, Patron and Guardian since. since the beginning of time itself. A third of his blood was angel blood so he had the right to claim angels as his propriety, because generally Fae and Angels hated each other and didn't like to mix the races.  
  
But. then that Heratio girl had ruined it all by becoming Demian's mistress. Now he had announced that and taken possession of the angels. Their land, ruled by Heratio, had become dry and dark, and he knew they were suffering. And what was worse, his own right as the ruler of the Underground was under the stake because he didn't have the angel race supporting him anymore. Demian could now declare war to him. and he wasn't sure is he would win.  
  
Hope was crushed after the rightful heir to the angel's throne, his fiancé as he remembered, had disappeared. He had seen the little girl once. The time he saw her he knew it would grow to be an astonishing beautiful angel, but she had vanished one day with her mother, a little spoiled and very childish princess he remembered all too well. Lindara of the Blue Moon.  
  
He didn't remember his fiancé name. Was it Saria? Ariadna? Mianka? He really didn't recall. The only thing he recalled were opal shinning eyes. that he had seen somewhere before but. when?  
  
He shrugged, noticing that the guest had been waiting for him over an hour. Better make now the stunning entrance and live the worries in his Throne Room.  
  
  
  
  
  
Sarah looked at herself in the surface of the mirror in front of her. The pure white tunic, made of a material that shimmered with her movement, was lovely. It had bell-shaped sleeves and a tiny waist, were she wore a platinum belt. She had platinum sandals fastened with strings around her legs and she had diamond bracelets and a diamond choker too. Crystal drops glimmered in her hair and a white mask decorated with white feather hid her features from her nose to her forehead. Her crystal wings framed her figure majestically.  
  
"I certainly look like a Queen. let's hope I feel like one" she mumbled with a sigh. She spun a little, inspecting her clothes cautiously till she was completely satisfied. Her pointed ear perked at the sound of music coming from two closed doors at her left. She sighed again, threw a white silken cloak over her wings and tunics and put up the hood, concealing her face.  
  
"Off we go, to play little Cinderella" she whispered as she quietly entered the ballroom, trying to hide in the shadows. To watch and be prepared to surprise the whole countenance. After all. she had to make an unforgettable first apparition.  
  
And she really did.  
  
  
  
Kings, Queens and noblemen from all the know and unknown realms danced in unison, laughing merrily or discussing serious things, being polite or hypocrites, blessing or damning at their will. A cloaked figure, a mighty King and a dark angel were on opposite sides of the grand room, playing parts of Destiny's play.  
  
"It's time for a singing contest" a Queen cried, excited "It's a tradition"  
  
Everybody cheered with approbation; a few people casting their magic to make a stage and a crystal box appear in a corner. Other added lights and decorations, their strings of magic dancing in the air with all the colors of the rainbow.  
  
When the last touches where added the contest begun. Sarah watched with little interest. She was more interested in the noblemen and noblewomen of the angel race, sitting apart. They were few and they looked horrible: dark circles under their eyes, mended clothes. sorrow and despair. They were full of that.  
  
She spotted two silver heads that recognized instantly as Adrian and Adriana, trying both not to look gloom. But they were drained. all their energy and spirit was gone. Heratio had reduced them to what Sarah saw that moment.  
  
She clutched her crystal goblet full of ruby-red wine, anger rising within herself, building inside her body. That bloody girl. had ruined everything! Her kingdom, her people, her advisors even! But that was going to change that very night.  
  
Adriana sang after the queen of Pixies, and her voice enchanted everyone. Of course, angels were the best singer in all the Realms and everybody knew that. As they also knew that angels of the Royal Family were the best singers, even better than average angels.  
  
And Heratio loved to show off.  
  
So after the applauses the crowd gave Adriana she swept majestically towards the stage, a smug smile in her face. Sarah wanted to slap it out of her face, but contained herself. Just a little longer. just a few more minutes and she would beat Heratio on her own game and by her rules. She had to be patient.  
  
Heratio of the Black Moon, Queen of the angels, curtsied to the audience and, with a seductive voice, sang a perfectly tuned song, putting a spell on everyone. Unfortunately she had no passion for singing, just skill. But she sang well, Sarah admitted to herself. Better even than Adriana.  
  
"Mmm. I think we have a winner" the King of Dragons said aloud. Various Kings and Queens nodded. In a dark spot near the High Throne of Jareth, which was at the top of a few black marble stairs and in front of the stage, was a curvy figure, dressed in deep red and loaded with diamonds and rubies?  
  
"Bored, milord?" a female voice asked when Jareth stifled a yawn with one elegant movement.  
  
"Not quite yet" the King of the Goblins replied "What about you, Dalila?"  
  
His mistress shrugged nonchalantly and sighed.  
  
"The singing contest is always boring. What's the point of making one if that pathetic little race of winged fools is going to win always, anyway?" she complained. Jareth rolled her eyes at her. Even Heratio, with the little spirit she put on her singing, made him feel strange inside. angels could wake his dormant feelings somewhat. Dalila simply didn't appreciate good music.  
  
She noticed his scowling and smiled seductively, wrapping her arms around his neck. As she kissed him he sensed someone watching. And his blue eye spotted, within shadows, a white figure, standing alone, gazing at him, he was sure of it. But, why was it bothering him so much?  
  
  
  
It was now or never, and she knew it. It was her chance. But, after stepping there, there was no coming back, no chickening. not a chance to return to the comfort of her family. She picked her skirts and, with an intake of breath she climbed the stairs that lead to the stage, under the astonished look of all the presents, even Heratio that was in the arms of Damien.  
  
"Come, come, Heratio, is that the best you can do?" she asked from the stage, smiling devilishly. She had her hood up still, and the cloak concealed her precious wings so nobody had a clue about whom or what she was.  
  
"Excuse me? Do you think you could do better?" Heratio answered, fuming as if Sarah had insulted. In a way she had.  
  
"An angel sings with the heart, and you haven't done that. a pity, really"  
  
"So you do think you could beat me? Well, come on, stranger, try" she taunted Sarah, an evil little smile playing on her lips.  
  
"If you wish, Heratio" Sarah responded simply. Then she touched the crystal box that served to play the music of the song she was about to sing. It was a magic thing.  
  
The music flowed smoothly from the music box, filling the ballroom. It was magical, mystical, warm and chilly at the same time, filling the senses of all the presents. Sarah hummed lowly till the singed part of the song started. She prepared herself, took one deep breath and let the words roll out of her mouth.  
  
  
  
Author's Note: Yes, this is a cliffhanger. And no, there are no laws against me leaving you a cliffhanger (*authors sticks her tong out in childish way*). Well, now seriously, I want to thank all the people who reviewed (a whole lot of people by the way). I don't want to blackmail you, and I'll keep on writing with or without reviews, but its soooo nice to receive them so, just for the kindness of your heart, send reviews.  
  
I must be off. Now I leave you with two people to hate: Dalila and Heratio. Enjoy yourself tipping them head first in the Bog of Eternal Stench (I do!). Hugs and enchanted peaches to you all,  
  
The Author (aka The Little Annoying Vixen) 


	5. Chapter Four: The Strongest Bond, Part T...

Chapter IV: The Strongest Bond, Part II: The music flowed smoothly from the music box, filling the ballroom. It was magical, mystical, warm and chilly at the same time, filling the senses of all the presents. Sarah hummed lowly till the singed part of the song started. She prepared herself, took one deep breath and let the words roll out of her mouth:  
  
A new day  
  
A new day I was waiting for so long  
  
For a miracle to come  
  
Everyone told me to be strong  
  
Hold on and don't shed a tear She looked at Adriana and Adrian. The woman angel was looking at her oddly, like is she remembered her. They were all like enchanted; no one was even moving or making a single movement. She put her hood down, revealing the mask and her shinny ebony curls decorated with drops of crystal and continued her song: Through the darkness and good times  
  
I knew I'd make it through  
  
And the world thought I had it all  
  
But I was waiting for you A particular little angel-kid was looking at her, her wings dirty and her cheeks as pale as death. She had an aura of death around her. 'She is dying' Sarah though and she felt her heart being stabbed. But the little girl was looking at her with adoring eyes, as if she knew who she was. And as if she had been expecting her. Hush, now  
  
I see a light in the sky  
  
Oh, it's almost blinding me  
  
I can't believe  
  
I've been touched by an angel with love She threw the cloak away with one quick movement, not caring if the whole damn Underworld new who she was. She heard gasps and cries, and then complete silence. She was the only one doing some kid of noise; all the other mystical creatures were struck speechless. She looked towards the angel girl and saw she was smiling, her face radiant with joy. Yes, the girl had been expecting her somehow. Let the rain come down and wash away my tears  
  
Let it fill my soul and drown my fears  
  
Let it shatter the walls for a new sun A new day has come She realized suddenly she was crying, but was not ashamed for that. She kept looking at Adriana and Adrian and noticed the angel woman was slightly crying too. Her brother rubbed her back, trying to calm her. But Adriana had a smile on her face. She was happy, not sad. When it was dark now there is light  
  
Where there was pain now there is joy  
  
Where there was weakness I found my strength  
  
All in the eyes of a boy Hush, now  
  
I see a light in the sky  
  
Oh, it's almost blinding me  
  
I can't believe  
  
I've been touched by an angel with love Heratio trembled, her mouth partially opened, and her eyes wide with fear. Some angels were also obviously surprised and looked at each other, trying to find answers to their questions on the other's eyes. The only ones calmed were the children that, apparently, were enjoying the song, smiling secretly at each other. They knew. they simply knew. Sarah winked at them and a couple of kids giggled a little, amused by the shock of the "grown ups". Let the rain come down and wash away my tears  
  
Let it fill my soul and drown my fears  
  
Let it shatter the walls for a new sun A new day has come Hush, now  
  
I see a light in the sky  
  
Oh, it's almost blinding me  
  
I can't believe  
  
I've been touched by an angel with love I see a light in your eyes  
  
All in the eyes of a boy  
  
I can't believe  
  
I've been touched by an angel with love Hush, now  
  
A new day  
  
Hush, now  
  
A new day  
  
The music became lower and lower till it vanished. For a moment everyone was paralyzed. Even Jareth, High Fae, King of the goblins and Ruler of the Underground (did I forget a title?) did not know what to say or what to do. Sarah tried to control her breathing and to keep her body from shaking. She felt the adrenaline running through her veins.  
  
Adriana was the first to move. She ran through the crowd of stunned people. She was crying hard as she reached the stage and locked eyes with the angel-human.  
  
"It's. it's you.! Those eyes! I would recognize them anywhere!" she exclaimed, her voice full with joyfulness. Then she did something that defied protocol in every way: she hugged her. Sarah was astonished for a couple of seconds and then smiled.  
  
"Adriana. long time no see" she said when the advisor broke the embrace "You haven't changed one bit since the last time I saw you!"  
  
The silver-haired angel laughed lightly.  
  
"Well, you surely have changed! I mean. You were a cute, little girl when I last saw you. Whereas now. you are. different"  
  
"No more little girl, I know" Sarah muttered. Adriana then turned and walked off the stage, to whisper to her brother, who didn't understand a thing, who she was talking to. Finally, incapable of holding his tongue, Dalila asked loudly:  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
Sarah bit her lip, thinking the reply. She was half angry at that creature (yes, she was jealous but she isn't going to admit it) and half amused. She titled her head to a side and with an innocent voice replied, looking at Dalila steadily and smiling slightly:  
  
"Some have called me the Lost Child. Other people have even named me Lady Mist, the Rightful Queen. But my name is simply Sarianka. Sarianka of the Third Dynasty of the Blue Moon"  
  
The entire ballroom seemed to gasp in unison and Sarah felt nervous. what if they didn't want her after she had shunned them for twenty- four years? What if. what if they preferred even Heratio as their Queen?  
  
"You have come to take my kingdom away! But you can't do that! You are a stranger to your species' eyes!" Heratio shouted with anger, her face going red.  
  
Sarah took a deep breath, but said nothing. Heratio was partially right after all. Why had she come back? To mess their lives?  
  
But, suddenly, a cry erupted from the sector of the angels. One black- haired, gold-eyed nobleman had shouted: "Our child has returned! Long live Queen Sarianka and the Dynasty of the Blue Moon!" And soon every single angel was shouting the same words, bathing their wings and punching the air with closed fists. Sarianka smiled kindly, shedding a single tear.  
  
"Thank you" she mouthed to her people, impressed with their loyalty. Then she turned to Heratio, and the hatred in her face made her cousin back up.  
  
"You were the one that made me come here. For a long time I've seen the way you have treated my people, humiliated them, and even killed them. I can't stand it anymore! I've had enough visions for your cause! I am not letting you ruin my kingdom! And neither are the Great Ones. It is by their power that I am now here. Because by blood, by heart and by will I am your Queen, and your are my subject. And for eternity, so be it" she bowed, and, suddenly, three voices spoke in unison:  
  
"The words have been spoken. She has now taken the place destiny gave her. Heratio, time is over"  
  
There was a flash of light and Sarah's eyes glowed a pure shade of white for a couple of seconds. Then it all went back to normal.  
  
"Your Majesty, we will be happy to serve you" Adrian spoke to Sarah, while bowing. The girl nodded but, when she spotted Demian approaching her she decided she needed to take the last step alone.  
  
"There is something I need to do by myself, Advisors" she told them while wrapping her winds around her body. She wasn't really enjoying the lusty look the King of Nightmares was giving her.  
  
"May I present myself to you, Your Majesty? After all, being the protector of the Angel Race I think it's my duty" the Monarch of Bad Dreams whispered in a silky voice that Sarah found disgusting.  
  
"There is no need for presentations. I know who exactly you are. You. are my cousin's lover. That's enough for me" was the cold reply that the half-angel gave him. Demian forced himself to keep smiling as he reached out to grab her arm.  
  
"I don't think you understand your position here, Your Majesty. You are below me. I can order you to do whatever I please. I can do with YOU whatever I want"  
  
But as he touched her ivory skin an invisible force sent him flying and smashed him against a wall. All the people gathered in the room froze in their spots and, seconds later, they all started muttering.  
  
"What the HELL was that?" the injured King yelled at the top of his lungs. Or the eyes of the ballroom where focused on Sarah when she calmly replied:  
  
"That means you are not Lord Protector of the angels"  
  
There were several gasps and exclamations but the girl hardly paid them any kind of attention. Her eyes, challenging, kept focused on the now disheveled and wounded figure of the King of Nightmares, who was looking at her with a disbelieving gaze.  
  
"How can that be?" he practically screamed "I have the strongest bond!"  
  
The angel Queen turned to see the person sitting in the imposing throne.  
  
"Ask the Ruler of the Underground" she cryptically said, and then walked to stand before Jareth's throne.  
  
"Several years ago you visited the Angelic Realms and met a girl. a little girl with big, opal-like eyes that kept staring at you with awe. You became engaged to the little one, but she and her mother disappeared. You never saw her again."  
  
Jareth nodded, suddenly becoming very interested in the woman before him. Dalila fumed and almost made a tantrum in the middle of the ball, but knew better and kept her mouth shut.  
  
"I remember." the Fae slowly affirmed.  
  
"After I disappeared, you never called the engagement off, though. A Holly bond is more powerful than just a physical one. You are the Lord Protector of Angels from the moment I stepped into this reality. Since you never broke the contract I'm still your fiancée"  
  
There were more gasps and gossip but Jareth stopped them with a gesture of his hand. Sarah took a deep breath and continued:  
  
"It's up to you to decide the fate of my people. You decide whether to keep the engagement or call the whole thing off. But" at this point she paused "There is something you need to see before you either accept me or reject me"  
  
Jareth arched an eyebrow  
  
'The girl is insane. What on the underground would make me call off the engagement? She know perfectly well I need her race'  
  
"Show me what you need to show me, Queen Sarianka"  
  
She started removing her mask and sever people whispered that, maybe, she had some disfiguration or something. But nobody could understand why, if the girl had such a breathtakingly beautiful face as they saw when she finally took off al the mask, the Goblin King had dropped his goblet in surprise and gasped.  
  
  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Author's Note: Yes, I can imagine you must fear this little notes of mine and you should because I have some bad news. I won't be able to post anytime soon due to school (yes, we all hate it, but I gotta do well on my exams, blah, blah, yadda, yadda.). I won't be able to update my two fics in some time but please be patient. Please, please, pretty please with Jareth on top?  
  
Also I am so sorry to leave a cliffhanger. You don't hate me, do you (*Sabina puts one innocent face*). I really, really didn't do it on purpose.  
  
Well, gotta blaze. Please don't kill me because if you do so, I won't be able to finish the story. Hugs and peaches to you all,  
  
Sabina 


	6. Chapter Five: Let's Chat, shall We?

Chapter V: Let's have a little Chat, shall we? Memories of a night unforgotten floated back into the Fae's mind. A teenager, a simple brat looking at him and declaring:  
  
"You are him, aren't you? You are the Goblin King"  
  
Not shocked, not confused just. angry. And sad. so very sad. Like if she had known deep inside that he was real, but had refused to believe it.  
  
She hadn't thought he was a thief or a normal person. She had known the very instant she had seen him that he was the Goblin King and that was because. she had met him before.  
  
"You!" he bellowed, his face twisting into a feral expression. Sarah gulped and took a step back, knowing that she had unleashed the wrath of the Goblin King. And that she was going to regret it.  
  
"Jareth, calm down" she whispered, trying to sound soothing and not scared out of her wits as she was "I can explain."  
  
She never got the chance to finish what she was saying. For the King stood up and with strong and furious steps he climbed off the marble stairs and grasped one of her hands. He looked majestic and powerful to her eyes, his black cape billowing violently behind him, his eyes full of fiery rage. She gulped but her position and her own pride wouldn't allow her to show her fear.  
  
"Let me go!" she ordered with regal voice and manner, trying to brake free from his iron clutch, but with no avail. He was way stronger than she was physically.  
  
"You. Me. Outside. NOW!" he managed to scream in the middle of his anger, walking swiftly past noblemen and women and even monarchs that got out of his way quickly. He was dragging a now infuriated Angel Queen that was on the verge of insulting him in every language she could think of. Adriana and Adrian planted themselves in front of the blond-haired Labyrinth Master and demanded him to let go of their Queen.  
  
"Get out of my way!" he ordered them before pushing them aside with a powerful wave of magic.  
  
"You are going to pay for that, Goblin King!" Sarianka yelled, outraged, as she twisted and turned while Jareth pushed her out of the room with him under the astonished look of all the presents.  
  
Well, something has been proved, though. Both Sarah and Jareth just love dramatic entrances and exits.  
  
  
  
  
  
"Let go of me! You. you are hurting me, Jareth" the raven-haired woman muttered under her breath while she tried to control her breathing and the pounding of her heart.  
  
He finally released her just to pin her against the wall, putting his hands at the side of her head and using his body as a wall.  
  
"Now that you are not going anywhere, would you care to explain me what is going on, Sarah? Or should I say Queen Sarianka?" he snarled, his eyes blazing. Sarah tried to stop her body from trembling, but failed miserably. She sighed and then titled her head to a side, so she wouldn't be staring right into Jareth's irate mismatched gaze and replied with a soft tone:  
  
"My name is Sarianka, and I am half human and half angel. My mother abandoned me years ago and I have just abandoned my father to fulfill a duty I didn't ask for and that my mother so carelessly left me. Could you be a little more sensitive?"  
  
She didn't burst into tears or weep or. well, show fragility at any level. Her gaze was as cold as ice and yet. there was so much sorrow that the Goblin King softened his manners a little, but he was still angry, and angry he would act.  
  
"Did you just happen to forget to mention me you were my FIANCÈE the last bloody time you were here, Sarah darling?" he continued pressing, consciously getting closer to her. and closer and closer.  
  
"You don't have any kind of respect for personal space, do you?" the opal-eyed woman hissed through clenched teeth, her own temper beginning to rise. "Well, let me tell you one thing: I was SCARED. Of what? Of you, of the angel Race, of getting stuck in the Underground without a chance to see my family again. But I had to know, Jareth, if it was true. So I called upon you. You were my safer choice. Well, that is what I thought at the moment, anyway..." she looked into his menacing gaze and gulped "But I was sorely mistaken"  
  
His scowl became as smirk and then he arched an eyebrow.  
  
"Well, I can understand that but. why did you come back if you didn't want to? Why, after all these years? Was it because of. little old me, perhaps?"  
  
Sarah rolled her eyes and snorted very unladylike.  
  
"Don't flatter yourself, Ego King" she muttered to him "I came because of the visions. Something horrible was going to happen to the Underground, to my friends to. to everybody, that is all I can tell you"  
  
"It must be certainly horrible for you to agree to marry me" Jareth sneered, trying to provoke her and she didn't fail him.  
  
"You bet it was!"  
  
Then he let go of her and started pacing around her like a depredator looking at his prey with hunger in his eyes. He coked his head to a side and the smiled  
  
"Goblin King. smiling. Not Good. Definitely not good. head first in the bog kind of not Good" Sarah's mind reasoned instantly so she took a defensive posture and eyed him cautiously.  
  
"What?" she finally spat at him, wrapping her crystal wings around herself to feel more guarded. He smiled again, a true, hundred percent Goblin King (yeah, it's patented) wolfish smile and tried to look innocently. As if he could pull that one off (Insert author's snort here please).  
  
"You do realize that the future of your race is in my hands or rather in my decision of whether to marry you or not? You should be more complacent my dear" he taunted.  
  
"In your dreams, lover-boy!" she retorted, assuming a very Queenly (yes, that's a word, I didn't know till I wrote this chapter, amazing!) posture. "As if I didn't know you are in need of this 'happy matrimony' as much as I am!"  
  
Jareth gritted his teeth, but didn't reply. She was right, after all.  
  
"Believe me, if there was any other way to prevent chaos I would gladly jump into it before having to come here and face you and. beg you to marry me! But there's no other solution to my dilemma. or yours"  
  
"Don't flatter me so much, Sarah" the Fae hissed. The girl stared at him with mock regret and replied:  
  
"What? Did I wound your ego? Then why don't you go to your little barely dressed-if dressed at all- bimbo for her to fix it up?"  
  
'That little vixen has a Hell of a tongue!' the King thought, half- admired, half-infuriated. But he decided to play the smooth, charming, 'every-women-falls-at-my-feet' kind of Jareth just to tease her and annoy her.  
  
"So that's why you are being such a little tigress! You are jealous!" he laughed. Sarah's face went from pale with rage to red with embarrassment.  
  
"As if!" she managed to stutter, her eyes wide.  
  
"I saw you staring at us. all night" he accused with a wide grin, suddenly feeling in control of the conversation. She sighed and then turned her back to him.  
  
"Do you think its funny having to watch how my FIANCEE flirts with some stupid slut in front of the entire Underworld? Do you think that it is easy to know that you are the talking of every single monarch and noblemen in this entire freaking Realm? Then you are greatly mistaken, King Jareth! It's denigrating, embarrassing and a very uncomfortable position to be in. Then again that is your job, right? Putting me in very uncomfortable situations, I mean"  
  
Both of them fell silent, just staring into each other's eyes. Finally Jareth raised his arms as in defeat and sighed.  
  
"Well, since we seem to be in such good terms with each other let's do it. Let's get married"  
  
  
  
  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Author's Note: Well, you should be glad that I have a really big heart, you know? Cause here I am, in the middle of my Test week and still separating some of my time to grace you with another chapter. Just kidding, don't insult me yet! You really deserve this chapter for all your reviews and all that. The next chapter to come will be one of The Masks We Wear but be patient.  
  
Thank you for being such faithful readers. This is dedicated to my most devoted ones, all who wished me good luck in my exams and all who support my muse. She sends her thanks.  
  
Hugs and Peaches to you all,  
  
Sabina (Now officially crazy because she actually think she sees her muse and can speak to her) 


	7. Chapter Six: A Battle between Light and ...

Chapter VI: A Battle between Light and Darkness The girl blinked twice, her mouth hanging open.  
  
"That's it? You surrender so easily? You mean that there is no way of saving our kingdoms without actually marrying each other?" she asked, on the verge of a nerve collapse. She had expected Jareth to come up with some solution to both their problems.  
  
"I am not God, Sarah, no matter how much power I have" he snapped at her. Sarah fumed, lifting her wings and chin.  
  
"I am a Queen, Jareth, and you owe me respect" she snarled, her eyes practically burning with a powerful fire. He just threw his head back and laughed.  
  
"I am just showing you the respect you show me, your Grace" he mocked her, bowing to the floor. The girl sighed, rolling her eyes.  
  
"You're impossible" she stated "Just. let's go back to the party. It was quite wild when you literally dragged me out of it"  
  
Both Majesties eyed each other and sighed at once.  
  
"This is not going to work" she whispered, eyeing him "What on Earth are we going to do?"  
  
He shrugged; apparently less bothered with the problem than she was.  
  
"All we can do now is go and try something we have never tried before" he answered with a sudden wolfish smile. Sarah, of course, gulped as any other woman in her place would have done.  
  
"What?" she asked meekly. He grinned even more, showing his pointed teeth.  
  
"Be polite to each other" was what he uttered. Seeing her disgusted look he knew she wasn't about to be nice and charming with him unless he did something and soon "What is it, my Queen? Don't you dare?"  
  
She took a deep breath and looked at him with wide eyes. No one had ever dared to say that she didn't have the guts to do something ever!!! He was soooo going to regret that later.  
  
"I'll be so damn charming and adorable with you, Goblin King, that you won't know what it hit you!" she swore before waving a hand towards the oak doors leading to the ball that opened immediately "Shall we, my king?"  
  
They entered arm in arm, both daring the noble society that eyed them cautiously to say something about the scene that they had caused minutes ago. Adrian and Adriane immediately demanded the attention of their Monarch, who gladly complied. She wanted to catch up with all the Kingdom's news. She remembered little from the Angel Realm. What she did recall was that it was a beautiful place of pureness and peace. Or rather. it had been.  
  
"It has changed so much you won't recognize it, My Queen" Adriana whispered sadly, her eyes clouding and almost choking "Now it's all black and white. No colors, no brightness. no magic left alive. All the creatures that lived from the pureness of the Kingdom have perished or left the lands, in search of a new paradise. But there is no place like the angel Realm. well, like what it used to be, anyway"  
  
Adrian sighed and embraced his sister, which was younger than him for ten minutes. He didn't utter a word, but his dull gaze spoke to the half-angel, half-mortal volumes.  
  
'It's all your fault. You should've been there for them' a sly voice muttered in her mind. She shook the thought off her head and, suddenly, her sixth sense caught something. A cold, sneaking feeling that she didn't like at all. the feeling of a presence she knew all too well.  
  
"No" she muttered almost desperately, as a sharp pain made its way to her nape. She looked around; trying to see what she knew was invisible to the eyes.  
  
Death.  
  
"Show yourself, bastard" she hissed to nobody in particular, clutching her chest that, all of the sudden, started aching. It was a warning. As an angel, she was feeling death near, and it was a pleasant experience. Not at all.  
  
A faint sound caught her attention as she struggled not to fall to the floor. A simple, childish cough, and a little, tiny voice whispering 'Momma, I feel bad again. Very bad'. Sarah's body tensed and her eyes shot open. Funny, she hadn't realized she had closed them.  
  
Death. Death was coming to claim a life. The life of a little child. And she wasn't going to let that happen.  
  
She walked gracefully past noblemen and women of her race till her eyes locked with the yes of the little girl that had smiled at her earlier when she had sang. The girl was coughing hard, her body almost collapsing to the floor, covered with perspiration. She knelt before her, a smile tugging the corners of her mouth.  
  
"What troubles you, young one?" she whispered tenderly, helping the girl to her feet. The mother of the child tried to make her way to her daughter, but froze in the spot as she saw that the Queen herself was speaking to her.  
  
"Mom says I don't have to talk to strangers, but I know you, though you don't know me. I am. I am Karenna of the House of the Archangel Raphael. But everyone calls me Kari" she said, smiling.  
  
"Pleased to meet you, Kari. I am Queen Sarianka of the Third Dynasty of the Blue Moon. But you can call me simply Sarah" the monarch introduced herself and shook the girl's little hand "Now, you seem to have been expecting me. And, for being such a loyal little subject, I'll grant you a wish. Everything you want, you may have. But be quick, dear child." her gaze darted as she looked above her shoulder "He is coming" she warmed.  
  
The girl's eyes widened and she suddenly wrapped her arms around the half-mortal, half-angel's neck, hugging her tightly.  
  
"No! Please, don't let him get me. I have to live. I want. I want to see mommy happy" she quietly mutter into Sarah's hair "That is my wish"  
  
The Sovereign stood up and extended one of her crystal, shimmering wings and tore put five of her precious, fragile-looking feathers, wincing in pain as silvery blood erupted from the wound that she had created. Everyone gasped in unison and Adrian and Adriane asked her Majesty what she was doing.  
  
"I am just fulfilling a wish. Stay away from this, Advisors" she answered calmly. White, pure light began emanating form the feathers that suddenly levitated. For flew to cover the cardinal points at each side of the girl: South, north, east and west forming a cross where the girl stood in the middle, holding the fifth feather.  
  
"She is out of your reach" Sarah whispered to a shadow that had suddenly materialized outside the feather cross. It seemed that he wanted to grasp the little angel, but he couldn't trespass the feathers. The shadow squeaked in anger and Sarah shuddered.  
  
"Leave her alone" she whispered in a voice that echoed in the huge ballroom. She felt the presence of Jareth drawing near her and that comforted her somehow. The little girl stared at the shadow and, suddenly, tuck her tong out.  
  
"You can't get me. I am safe now" she said while a smile appeared in her face. Sarah took the feather that the girl was holding and made it glow even more. The angel's eyes started to glow also, and suddenly she didn't have pupils. The light that emanated from her body soon engulfed Kari's tinny form and, then. it stopped.  
  
The glowing, the echoing and the pain. all stopped.  
  
And the shadow vanished with a final, soul-freezing, agonizing scream.  
  
Sarah smiled weakly, slightly shivering and took on the now healthy appearance of Kari. Her cheeks where pink, the circles under her eyes gone and the look in her eyes normal and happy. She looked at her left and pointed towards an angel woman.  
  
"Kari. isn't that you mother? The one who is smiling?" the girl followed the Monarch's gaze and, when she saw her mother, smiling widely as tears ran down her cheeks, she nodded.  
  
"Yes, she is! And she is happy now! Thank you very much, Queen Sarah!" the young, angelic girl muttered, hugging Sarah tightly before running towards the weeping woman, giggling all the way. Sarah smiled even more before making her way towards a throne that had magically appeared next to Jareth's own. She collapsed rather than sat down, and closed her eyes tightly, breathing heavily.  
  
"What have you done, you fool?" Jareth asked, surprisingly tenderly, as she leaned into him to rest.  
  
"I was correcting a mistake. it was all my fault, after all" she muttered as she felt his thin, cruel lips on her forehead before she slipped into unconsciousness.  
  
  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Author's note: This chapter cost me a bit and yes, I know, I should have updated it years ago. Sorry for the delay, really. By the way, I'm receiving my report card tomorrow and I am so very nervous. Wish me luck for tomorrow I'll know if all those hours neglecting my poor readers and my muse for the sake of studying were or were not in vain. well, thanks again for all who wished me luck. The muse was utterly inspired by your reviews (Hint, hint).  
  
Anyway, gotta blaze. I don't know which fanfic I will be updating next, but I do know that the next chapter of the Night of the Blue Moon will be titled: "Meet the in-Laws". Just picture how it will be.  
  
Hugs and enchanted peaches to you all,  
  
Your slave. err, sorry, I meant 'The author' 


	8. Chapter Seven: Family Apparitions, Part ...

Chapter VII: Meet the In-Laws, Part One Sarah groaned and opened her eyes, mentally thanking for the darkness of the room she was in, because she was a little photophobic at the moment. Her opal-like eyes surveyed the canopy bed, made of the finest cherry wood she had ever seen, the silk, midnight-blue sheets and the silver, velvet coverlet embroiled with sapphire strings that seemed to draw a thousand different patterns across the cloth and sighed.  
  
She was most definitely in one of Jareth's rooms. She could tell that just from looking at the opulence of the bed. Her gazed turned to the vanity with a huge mirror at a side and the desk with the finely- carved chair, all made of the same cherry wood and then she set her eyes on the elegant tapestries, the gold-framed exquisite paintings and the shelves of perfectly-lined up books and she allowed herself to smile a little. The room was certainly fit for a Queen.  
  
She hopped out of the bed and noticed the beautiful, shimmering black nightgown she was wearing and gasped.  
  
She didn't remember changing into a nightgown at all. That meant that. Jareth had undressed her and put her that luxurious piece of clothing.  
  
"He better had used his magic" she swore under her breath, her cheeks acquiring a slight pink shade that mortified her to say the least. Trying to get her mind off the little incident she spotted two doors and, with doubtful steps, she approached one of them and opened it ever-so-slightly. She gasped again as her eyes went wide: one door led to a huge bathroom that sparkled. The porcelain of the walls was soft to the touch, there was modern plumbing (thank the Great Ones), a hall- stand with a silk, silvery robe and a closet full of different kind of shampoos and soaps of all the possible scents. Instead of a bath there was an enormous lake. The bottom of it was marble and it had drawings of dragons, mermaids and mermen dancing merrily.  
  
"He overdoes everything" she muttered aloud "And, for once, I'm happy about it"  
  
She smiled and closed the door gently, walking over the other one.  
  
"Knowing him well, and God helps me I do, this will be a Huge closet, with capital H" she said aloud to no one in particular as she opened the huge oak doors and a smiled formed itself in her face.  
  
"I guessed" she said cheerfully, giggling a little. Then she went to get a glimpse of the portraits hanging from the stone walls. One was obviously of Jareth. The mismatched eyes, gold hair and glitter made him an unmistakable figure. Next to him was a portrait of a person who looked exactly like him, except for to things: one was that, instead of silver-gold hair the person had silver-white hair and, instead of a blue eye and a hazel one the man had a grey eye that seemed of the color of the coldest steel and a red eye with tints of gold.  
  
He was, obviously, Jareth's twin brother. She remembered something of him. He had been born ten minutes after Jareth, according to what the Great Ones had told her, and was more of the bookish type: he had a Labyrinth of riddles and mental puzzles, and ruled over the most dangerously cunning creatures of the Underground. The King of Dragons was his title and, just as his brother, he was cruel and cold.  
  
And so very lonely.  
  
"He is Jareth's only family that I can recall. Great Ones, is there anyone else in Jareth's life?" she asked aloud, shutting her eyes and breathing deeply, trying to concentrate, The sound of a rich laugh filled her ears and she went red with embarrassment when a voice that she recognized as Future's replied:  
  
"Apart from Lady Dalila?"  
  
She practically growled and, apparently very offended, shouted to the air:  
  
"Stay out of this, Future. Present, if you would be so kind as to answer my question"  
  
The ever-so-gently middle god replied kindly that The High King had no relatives apart from Gareth, King of the Damned.  
  
"How is he? I mean, do they get along or is he jealous of Jareth for being High King?" she wanted to know.  
  
"Amazingly enough, he hold no resentment against his 'elder' brother. You see, he loves books and knowledge so much that he doesn't want any extra responsibilities that could drive him away from his precious Library. He does a good job ruling over creatures of great intelligence but he wouldn't' want to be High King. He wasn't born to do that" Past replied with his usual melancholic air.  
  
"Rare, rare indeed. I thought that with Jareth's troubled personality he would have a dysfunctional relationship with his brother. Guessed I was wrong"  
  
Suddenly there was a knock in the door and she spun around while she whispered a gentle: 'Come in'  
  
"I'm happy to see you so healthy again, Your Majesty" a female voice spoke kindly "You gave the Fae noblemen quite a spectacle the night before"  
  
The Monarch turned around to find Adriana and her brother Adrian looking at her, very pleased. Their faces didn't show the despair and tiredness that they had displayed the other night. They seemed full of life all of the sudden.  
  
Sarah smiled at that and titled her head.  
  
"Did I do well? I mean, did I pull the whole 'Queen-of-the-Angels' thing off?" she asked with as charming smile, yet there was a hint of nervousness behind her self-confident façade. The twins nodded, smiling in hopes of cheering her up. The human-angel sighed, relieved, and then asked what was to happen next.  
  
"Well, there is to be a big, and I mean, really big Banquet this very night. There you will decide the date of the wedding. And then, between this day and the Wedding day there will be lots of Balls. Fae people love to have partied, and partied, and parties, even for no reason at all. His High Majesty usually doesn't like to attend these affairs, but now, as the groom, he will be forced to" Adriana explained, knowing Fae protocol like the palm of her hand. The Sovereign was clearly not pleased with the thought of having to go to innumerable Balls but she was willing to do it for the sake of her Kingdom.  
  
'I had almost forgotten how loyal and dedicated a true Sovereign could be' Adrian mused silently, looking at her sister, who was trying to pick up the best gown for Her Majesty to wear that night. She seemed to be alright now. He had been terribly worried.  
  
"And there is to be a Bonding Ceremony too, Highness" she was saying in a soft voice "It is when a couple officially become engaged. It is pure formality, I assure you" she added promptly, seeing Sarah's mistrusting look.  
  
"You better be telling me the truth" she mumbled under her breath, sighing. Adrian chuckled softly and then watched as the two females came together to gossip.  
  
"What's with his lopsided grin and cheerful air? I thought he was serious all the time" Sarah whispered to the silver-haired woman beside her as they appeared to be choosing a gown for the Bonding Ceremony.  
  
"Oh, it's just that now that he doesn't have to worry about the Kingdom and the Race of angels, he finally has the time to court the pretty little pixie Lady he has had a crush on for the last ten years" the girl explained with a smile. The half-human smiled back and asked if she had any suitors.  
  
"No, Adrian follows me everywhere. But now that he will be too preoccupied with the Pixie Lady, I may have just the freedom I need to find love"  
  
Sarianka smiled, pretty pleased with herself. She had made everybody's life better.  
  
'Except for your, of course' a sly voice whispered in the back of her head. It wasn't one of those voices that sounded just like the person who was hearing them. It wasn't a mental voice. It belonged to someone she knew all to well.  
  
'Leave me alone. If some many people are happy, what does the suffering of one single soul matter?' she reasoned, closing her eyes shut to fight back tears.  
  
Because, no matter how much she tried to deny it, she knew she was just a scared little girl alone in a big, big world. Not a Queen.  
  
  
  
  
  
The Ballroom looked even more majestically than when she had first set eyes on it, all those years ago. For example most of the curtains had been removed, revealing the full size of the room, which was, as everything from Jareth, exceedingly huge (please, don't take me wrong. I didn't mean to imply nothing kinky with that phrase so get your minds out of the gutter, people!). It was tastily decorated in gold and silver, with crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, the faint scent of gardenia and jasmine feeling the air. There was Jareth's throne, its darkness contrasting with the fairness of the rest of the room. There was another throne besides his onyx one: it was made of white, polished marble with golden incrustations, beautiful creatures carved in its back. It was elegant, graceful, and looked deceivingly innocent.  
  
It was perfect for Sarah, Jareth decided.  
  
"The little vixen pretends to be such a nice little angel, when she really is hiding horns and a tail" the King muttered under his breath, as he saw her sitting there and humming lazily, her hard, cold eyes looking at the dancers twirl below her with a bored air. She was hiding something with a mask of boredom, and quite a good one for that matter. But no one fooled Jareth, King of Shams and Deceit. She was plain old faking.  
  
He wondered briefly why. And as he wondered his eyes, betraying parts of his body, roamed though her form, taking in the beautiful contrast between the dark night-blue of her gown and her pale, creamy skin. Her ebony locks of hair were hanging loosely down her back, and a silver halo floated slightly above her head, glowing faintly. It was a pretty little thing that halo, simple and yet it completed her angelic appearance. However it was her eyes what held his attention: they seemed to change color whenever her mood changed. It was what betrayed her and ruined her cool façade. What a pity.  
  
Her eyes were now the most disheartening shade of grey. It was a gloomy kind of grey, the one that made you think of dull grey clouds of heavy rain and of painful past memories. She was obviously miserable inside but the question was: Why?  
  
He could have understood if her eyes were red with anger or white with fear and nervousness but she was just sad and he couldn't decipher why. And it was driving him crazy. He tapped his foot on the smooth, cool floor and held his chin with one of his hands, staring off into space. Dalila tried to catch his eye as she danced in front of the 'merry soon-to-be couple', but he just wouldn't look at her.  
  
Then, all of the sudden, it was time for them to mingle in the crowd before the Bonding Ceremony. There were lots of people Sarah had to meet. She walked down the stairs and let Jareth present them almost monotonously. There was a particularly annoying lady dressed in black that looked suspiciously a lot like Lady Dalila. Sarah almost frowned when she heard the lady in question introduced herself as Dalila's older sister, Lady Camilla.  
  
"It's so nice to meet you, Lady Camilla" Sarah said with an obviously fake tone and smile, her eyes barely focusing on the woman's body. The Noble Lady was shocked by that and quickly fled from the presence of the Queen of Angels.  
  
"That wasn't nice" Jareth commented dryly. Sarah just shrugged  
  
"She wasn't particularly nice either, but you don't hear me complaining" she replied nonchalantly, smiling ever-so-slightly. But it wasn't a happy smile; it was a. devious one.  
  
"I must agree with her, brother. Camilla isn't exactly the kindest of noblewomen" a voice, suspiciously similar to Jareth's, replied. Sarah spun around to meet the mismatched, deep gaze of a Fae with silvery- white hair that was combed the same odd way than the Goblin King and he was dressed in silver and blue.  
  
He was his Majesty, Gareth, the Dragon King. He wasn't smiling but his face inspired friendliness somehow so Sarah smiled at him and curtsied.  
  
"Very nice to make your acquaintance, King Gareth. The Great Ones have told me a lot about you" she said nonchalantly, though her words intrigued the Fae men in front of her "Well, I do talk a lot with them, and, believe it or not, they gossip like the Merry Wives of Windsor"  
  
The silver-haired Fae arched an eyebrow and seemed actually a little bit amused, a thing that the Angel queen considered a huge improvement. He didn't seem the type of guy prone to show any kind of emotion at all. Jareth, at least, always seemed to be either amused or irritated, but he showed some kind of feeling, unlike his twin brother.  
  
Now it seems the appropriate time to explain a little about Gareth. He isn't the typical 'brother' that some people invent in their stories. I wanted him to be unique, so I made him smart. But not just smart, REALLY smart. For you see, he is cursed.  
  
Jareth and Gareth were the most ancient creatures alive. There were a few people older than them when they had been born, including their parent, but they all had died in what it was called the War. Because, in the Underground, there had only been one. Fae had been so unsettled by the new concept of death (that was incomprehensible for an immortal soul) that they had sworn never to repeat the experience. Bu the time the war started Jareth and Gareth had been a couple of thousands of years old and, when it had finished, they were the oldest Fae left.  
  
Jareth had promptly forgotten almost everything that had happened over the years, because even the greatest of memories can't remember everything that happened over millions of years.  
  
The thing was that Gareth remembered everything, for it was his job. He was the Keeper of Wisdom, cursed to remember every single bit of knowledge, every sad recollection, every tragic event, every single moment of that bloody war. It had almost driven him mad. Dragons, the only creatures almost as old as the Fae brothers, chose him because he was the only being wiser than them (for dragons had wisdom beyond any mortal's wildest dreams) and he had recovered slightly. He had begged once to the Great Ones, the ones who had cursed him to lift the weight of such task as it was keeping knowledge from his shoulder, but they had refused.  
  
As time passed, he became used to live knowing everything, remembering everything and understanding everything and had recovered. But he never was the Fae he had been before the war, when everything he knew and remembered was good and kind. He became aloof, cold and emotionless, for the burden of wisdom left him too tired to deal with any kind of feelings. And he had been titled by everyone as: 'The Damned'.  
  
Till the day she met her. but that's another story, that I'll write in due time.  
  
He was happy for his brother's upcoming nuptials for he knew that Jareth was head over heels in love with the Queen, who was also the girl who had defeated his sibling's Labyrinth all those years ago. A pity really that the two of them were too blind to see how good they fitted together, but he was confident that, in appropriate time they would realize their mutual love and would stop dancing around one another.  
  
As he saw them together a hint of a smile appeared on his marble- sculpted features, thing that he promptly hid from the praying eyed of the noblemen and women gathered around him. He wasn't fond of any public display of any kind, except. Well, except when he was with her.  
  
"You know that woman well, King Gareth?" Sarah asked politely, yet she suspected there was some kind of past affair between the annoying Camilla and the Monarch in front of her.  
  
"You could say so, milady, and please do not call me by my title. After all we are soon to be family" he was looking pointedly at Jareth, who was glaring right back at him.  
  
"Of course, if you don't mind dropping the whole 'Highness and 'Majesty' thing neither do i. But you must call me Sarah. Sarianka is too formal" she answered. The King of the Dragons continued with his explanation:  
  
"Lady Camilla has been after my throne. or my bed, since her husband, a powerful Sidhe Lord, died a couple of hundreds of years ago. Unfortunately for her, I've been always so focused on books and matters of the mind to notice her or any other woman." here he paused because Jareth had snorted loudly and rolled his eyes "I believe, Miss Sarah, that you have met Camilla's young sister. Lady Dalila" he added, just to annoy his older brother a little. Sarah laughed and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like: "They are too of a kind. a bad one". Just then the silver-haired Fae turned his head and saw Lady Dalila approaching. Things didn't look good for the queen of angels, for Dalila had an evil grin plastered on her face and he knew that she was capable of the most atrocious things to get what she wanted.  
  
Then he stiffened and a gust of wind passed by. There was a slight change in the atmosphere of the place and, suddenly Dalila, who was climbing down a magnificent marble staircase, missed one step and fell flatly on her face. Gareth rolled his eyes and stared at a figure standing in front of Dalila's sprawled form. The figure belonged to a woman that seemed to be no more that nineteen years old but her eyes held the wisdom and knowledge of thousands of years. Her hair was mahogany that seemed read when was hit by rays of light. Her eyes were a striking ice-blue that seemed to shine with and iridescent, unknown light that was similarly to the glow of stars in Heaven. She wore a Renaissance-styled dress with a square neck, flowing, bell-shaped sleeves. The color of the dress was silver that seemed to shimmer with her very movement. At the top of her head there was a crown made of an odd type of material that reminded Sarah of quartz and crystal at the same time. She wore silver make-up and red lipstick that highlighted her hair and the fairness of her pale, marble-like skin. She was quite a sight to behold. and she was trying hard not to laugh.  
  
"Lady Dalila, I know I am a queen, but next time if you want to greet me a simple curtsy will suffice" she said calmly, her voice so soft and yet everyone could hear it as clear as water. She turned to the trio (Sarah, Jareth and Gareth) and smiled to one of them.  
  
"Darling I'm so sorry it took me so long to get hear but I. lost track of time and then I had to get into this dress with the corset that is making breathing a very hard task and. well, you know" she said as she walked straight into the arms of Gareth, who was actually smiling wolfishly.  
  
"My, my, love; you are surely quite a breathtaking sight. I almost feel bad for all these men that see you but can't have you" he muttered as he kissed her on the lip, right in front of the shocked community of Fae that were all wide-eyed. They still had to get used to the new Gareth that surfaced every time the Queen of Dragons appeared.  
  
"Just consider yourself lucky that you aren't among them" the woman replied with a mysterious smile that the Fae returned. The girl then turned to Sarah and curtsied.  
  
"Sorry for being so tactless. I should have presented myself, I am Augustine, Queen of the Dragons and Keeper of Heavens" she told the angel "I am Gareth's wife, and I am a human, just like you"  
  
Sarah was reddened speechless. That creature, with that mystical, ethereal aura surrounding her, was human?  
  
Augustine smiled and nodded at the angel's unspoken question.  
  
"I was born human, but in reality I am an 'infans caeli'. a child of Heavens. I can communicate with the stars and planets, and change slightly my surroundings by moving the planets form positions. You see, everything is controlled ever-so-slightly by the heavenly bodies so by changing their position I can change things and even people" she said cheerfully, as if it were the most usual of things "For example, Lady Dalila receiver's all her grace from Venus, her guardian planet. By changing that influence moving Venus out of the way you can take all that elegance away from her. The result is that nasty fall from the stairs"  
  
Jareth chuckled, amused and Sarah burst out laughing after seeing the evil glint on Queen Augustine's eyes, meaning that she wasn't sorry for what she had done. Gareth jut shook his head and feigned a sigh.  
  
"I knew you had been responsible for that accident. Whatever am I going to do to you, my sweet?" he asked mocking tiredness. His queen nuzzled closed to him and whispered into his ear:  
  
"How about love me for who I am?"  
  
He looked at her in the eye and smiled broadly.  
  
"Excellent idea"  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Author's Note: Wow that was some chapter!!! It's huge! I mean, really, my wrists ache from writing so much!!! But it's a way to thank you for being so patient with this lazy author.  
  
By the way, I do not own Labyrinth and all its characters. The angels, Dalila, Camilla, King Gareth and Queen Augustine are MINE, so please ask for my permission to use them. In case you haven't noticed Augustine is me. My name is Agustina, and its translation in English is 'Augustine'. So it's a self-insertion. Everything about her is just as I am (except that she becomes a magical creature and is nineteen whereas I am barely sixteen). I hope you like her. I'll write a story about her and Gareth, how them met and fell in love in case anyone wants to know. Please tell me if you do.  
  
To Shannon Corrigan, who asked me to say Hi to her, A big HI! And about the sex thing in TMWW, I don't know if there's gonna be any. Hey, I'm merely sixteen and, besides, if my mother read anything like that she would freak out. Sorry.  
  
Tell me if you liked the new characters. I think that making Jareth's brother a bookworm was a rather interesting twist, don't you think?  
  
Well, see you next chapter.  
  
Hugs an peaches for all,  
  
Sabina (The Author, duh!!!)  
  
  
  
P.S.: Happy Halloween!!!! 


	9. Chapter Eight: Family Apparitions, Part ...

Chapter VIII: Meet the In-Laws, Part Two:  
  
Soon Sarah realized that, in many ways, Gareth and his Queen were a match made in Heaven. The Queen was very intelligent and prone to make witty remarks, which her husband seemed to enjoy very much listening. And the pair had the strange habit of 'crossing wits' whenever possible. They verbally argued about almost everything, seeming to like their little battles of intelligence where there was no winner. Queen Augustine was extremely perceptive and a little bit aloof. Yet she wasn't afraid of any of the members of the court, who surely didn't like the fact that one of their most powerful Kings and Fae had gone and married a simple human girl. She appeared to be not more than a child but actually she was twenty one and a successful writer.  
  
"How did you meet Gareth?" Sarah asked once the men were off to discuss with other men whatever men discuss when they are all together (being a female I wouldn't know.). Augustine seemed to remember that faithful day with a mixture of apprehension and tenderness.  
  
"It was raining. I was fifteen, and he frightened me so much. I had never had fear of any person before, I remember. He shocked me, you could say" she replied "But the rest is a really long story. Let's just say that I had to pay a little visit to His Labyrinth" she added with a knowing smile which Sarah returned.  
  
"So you went through the same hell. We should start a club or something" she muttered and the two Majesties laughed out loud. As the chords of a song began sounding the Queen of Dragons smiled sweetly at her husband and approached him.  
  
"You asked for our song" she stated simply, while Gareth took one of her fragile, milk-white hands and led her towards the dance floor. Sarah stood near Jareth, and suddenly arched an eyebrow.  
  
"What is it with the two of them looking like two lovebirds? Why is this song so important?" she asked. The music wasn't a waltz or a slow song, but something between slow and fast. It was like a mix of tango and waltz with a rapid tempo. AS the couple of Dragon Monarch started dancing in a very strange way they also started levitating, floating in mid-air as if they were actually stepping in something solid. As Gareth started singing in his deep, British-accented voice Jareth replied to Sarah:  
  
"That is their song. Everyone has a song, every couple"  
  
The sable-haired woman nodded, suddenly the notes of a certain music box song sounding inside her head. Memories of herself twirling in the arms of a majestic-looking goblin King roamed through her mind and she closed her eyes, trying to revive the experience. She had been dazed, dizzy and her heart had seemed to pound in her ears instead of in her chest and she had first blamed the peach for all that but. Something told Sarah that it hadn't been the damn peach the one that had made her feel the way she had felt.  
  
"No. he is already taken, he has a mistress!" she thought painfully "Please, don't let me fall in love with him!" she pleaded to whoever was listening. From somewhere in the dance floor Augustine and Gareth watched the torn-apart couple with pity.  
  
"He loves her" Gareth said simply.  
  
"She loves him" his wife replied, shaking her head "But I can't foresee their future. Something is going to end up wrong, a heart will be broken. I.. I just wonder who's"  
  
"Damn Fate, Chance and Destiny" the Dragon King muttered, cradling his love tenderly "They toy with emotions as if there were careless little things. They did the same with us"  
  
"Yes, dearest, but look how we turned up" Augustine whispered "Maybe, just maybe, there is hope for them. I'll draw their celestial charts tomorrow and see. After all" she added impishly "The stars know everything"  
  
  
  
  
  
"My Lady, my Lady" a voice called from somewhere behind Sarah. The angelic Queen turned to see Adriane making signs for her to come near.  
  
"The bonding ceremony is now" she explained and suddenly Sarah's blood went cold. all of it. Suddenly she had the jitters; after all she had been though that was the moment her body chose to go all shivery and her stomach to feel queasy!  
  
"Well, would you care to enlighten me about this ceremony?" the girl hissed to Jareth while they were surrounded by people who formed a circle around them. Adriane had gone to join her brother, who was accompanied by a creature that looked suspiciously like a pixie Lady.  
  
"Well, first you should stop clutching my hand like that" the Goblin King stated flatly while he pointed towards their joined hands. Sarah's knuckles were turning white from holding his hand tight and she blushed, cursing, and promptly released his hand, mumbling an apology.  
  
"Next, you must choose someone to be your witness. It has to be a creature of other race than yours. I've chosen my brother, for he is half Dragon because of his title" he explained. Sarah didn't think twice. The one trustworthy person she knew apart from Adrian and Adriane was.  
  
"I choose Queen Augustine as my witness. She is human as me, but also and Infans caeli. It should be no problem" she said aloud and Augustine smiled.  
  
"Thank you" she mouthed while she joined her husband inside the circle that the crowd of noblemen and women had formed.  
  
"Now what?" Sarah asked in a whisper, suddenly more than nervous. She was starting to panic upon feeling all the pairs of eyes in the room following her every movement. Jareth chuckled and hold her hand gently, with the same gentleness that he had kissed her forehead with not long ago and tried to soothe her.  
  
"The witnesses will display there true selves and then they will answer a couple of questions from the priest that is at their right, see?" he muttered pointing at a dumpy man clad in a robe with a rather benign face and a good-natured disposition. His smile served to calm Sarah's sensitive nerves enough for her to stop trembling. She wondered for the thousandth time why she had ventured into the Underground again, knowing what she would have to endure.  
  
"Ready?" the deep, baritone voice of her future husband asked suddenly. She barely nodded, too enraptured in her own thoughts to even pay attention. She was thinking about Toby and her family, and how much she already missed them all. She needed them there, desperately, but instead she was all alone.  
  
"My Dear Beloved, the time has come" the gentle, soothing voice of the priest said loudly before the man pointed towards the King of Dragons "Milord, if you would be so kind as to regain you true form." he asked softly. The Monarch nodded briefly before closing his eyes. A pair of beautiful silver-scaled dragon wings appeared on his back, followed by and arrow-pointed tail of the same color. Sarah watched that, amazed and curious but the only question she could come up with to ask Jareth was:  
  
"Why didn't the wings tore his clothes?"  
  
The Goblin King laughed out loud before answering, apparently very amused with the question.  
  
"That's because his clothes are made of a special type of fabric. It's called 'eternity' and it doest tore or get stained at all. It is really helpful for magical beings that shape-shift, like my brother"  
  
When the priest made a signal to Augustine to reveal her true form she smiled sheepishly and asked her husband to use his magic to change her outfit.  
  
"This dress isn't made of 'eternity'" she explained with an apologetic smile. Her husband chuckled and created a crystal that, unlike Jareth's, was not colorless but of a translucent shade of gray. He threw it at the Dragon Queen who found herself dressed in a simple ice- blue tunic that was form-fitting till it reached her hips and flowed freely form that point on. The sleeves where also form-fitting till the elbow and then cascaded down, which so much extra fabric that it almost touched the floor.  
  
"You look better this way than in a dress, my dear" Gareth gently told the petit red-haired girl slyly and Augustine blushed slightly.  
  
"Ehem. I am sorry to interrupt your tender moment, but I believe we were about to discuss Sarah's and my union, not to see a lovely display of yours" Jareth chided, tapping his food against the cool floor. Gareth rolled his eyes and stepped away from his wife.  
  
"Transform, sweetheart and let's get this over with before he gets cranky. It seems that he can't wait till he is formally bounded with his little angel" Jareth's twin muttered loudly enough fro everyone to hear. Augustine threw him a warning look, the typical 'don't-try-to- see-how-much-patience-he-has' look and closed her eyes. Almost instantly as a ripping pain surrounded her she fell to her knees, clutching her abdomen and trying hard not to scream. Her slightly colored skin lost all color and became as pale as moonlight and a little bit shinny as well. Her eyes became as pointed as elfin ears, her hair redder, like flames and huge, dragon-like wings appeared on her back. Those wings, unlike Gareth's, weren't made of scales but of the same crystal and quartz-like material her crown was made of. That material was called 'starlit quartz' and was the thing that composed the nucleus of stars and other heavenly bodies. The transformation was completed when a slight film of silvery-white, shinny dust appeared on her skin, hair and body, much like Jareth's glitter, except that it seemed somewhat different. Her eyes were glowing a luminous ice-blue as she looked up at her husband, watching her with a concerned expression.  
  
"It's okay, darling It didn't hurt as much as last time" she reassured him. Her voice was still the same, but the tome was more regal, colder. She smiled and Sarah smirked at her.  
  
"Glitter?" was all she asked. Augustine faked an indignant expression an answered airily:  
  
"Stardust, not glitter! Stardust is cooler to the touch and silvery- blue, unlike glitter that has a silver-gold tone"  
  
When it was obvious that the Queen of Dragons was well enough to continue with the ceremony the priest started mumbling something in Latin that everyone seemed to understand. Everyone except the raven- haired 'bride-to-be'.  
  
"What the devil is he saying, Jareth dear?" Sarah asked casually with smile to disguise how lost she felt at the moment.  
  
"Did I just hear the word 'darling'?" Jareth retorted, knowing that Sarah would surely want to hit him, but that would mean ruining their façade. They were supposed to be the merry couple, after all.  
  
"Oh, do shut up" Sarah finally whispered with a tired sigh, but the Goblin King had never lost a battle, whether physical or verbal, and he wasn't about to let it be the first time.  
  
"You were the one who started this conversation, Sarah dear" he murmured accenting the 'dear' part "So it's only fair that I decide when to end it. Besides, I have only been trying to help. You are every bit the ungrateful child I remember from eight years ago"  
  
That seemed to struck a chord somewhere in Sarah's heart. She looked at him sharply, not minding all the attention she was getting ad hissed:  
  
"You are wrong, Jareth. I am every bit the lonely, scared child I was eight years ago, alone in a big, unknown and dangerous land"  
  
And finally, after eight years of thinking, analyzing and deciphering Jareth realized that he hadn't met a spoiled, selfish brat eight years ago in the Labyrinth. He had met a scared little kid, craving for a friend or a support while she confronted the unfamiliar.  
  
'Damn'  
  
'Do I sense guilty?' a sly voice whispered inside his mind and, as he was about to negate that, he was pulled back into reality by the priest's voice asking him:  
  
"Do you wish to engage yourself to Queen Sarianka Michaela Elina from the Third Dynasty of the Blue Moon, being aware of the consequence the mentioned engagement would carry?"  
  
"Yes" he said simply, loud enough for the entire Ballroom to hear. A couple of noble Ladies started crying, their matchmaking mother patting them in their back, trying to comfort them for the most eligible bachelor of all the Underground has just gotten engaged, which was for them as good as if he had gotten married.  
  
"Sorry" he mumbled quietly o her after doing quite a lot of thinking. Sarah at first felt touched by his apologies, for she knew that he wasn't a man who liked to admit he had been wrong and much less apologize but her vicious tongue got the best of her.  
  
"For what Jareth? For the thirteen hours of Hell or for making this unpleasant thing of marrying you even more unpleasant?" she asked sharply, yet no one but he heard her comment. Feeling his pride being wounded he retorted with a taunting voice:  
  
"Come on, Sarah, the thought of marrying me can't appall you that much"  
  
She raised an eyebrow and looked at him.  
  
"The only reason I'm doing this, my King, is because beggars can't be choosers"  
  
Suddenly the Goblin King's eyes hardened and he looked at her with fake admiration.  
  
"Low blow, my dear. I didn't know you had it in you. Now I believe that it's your turn to answer to the priest" he hissed. Sarah averted her attention from his cold gaze to the kind and smiley face of the religious man and tried hard to focus on what he was saying:  
  
"Do you wish to engage yourself to Jareth Cain Lucifer of the High Dynasty of the Fae, being aware of the consequence the mentioned engagement would carry?"  
  
"Yes" she replied simply. There wasn't much else to say, and certainly nothing she would want to share with a room full of strangers.  
  
There was more sobbing and crying from young noble Ladies and some sighs of disappointment from the single (and some married) noblemen.  
  
The priest then turned to the witnesses, who swore to be absolutely sure that both Jareth and Sarah were getting engaged by their free will and desire, without any kind of threat or coercion (well, if you take Sarah's omens of doom and Jareth's suspicions of Damien taking his throne and position they are not lying entirely). The priest, after such a serious and formal event, threw his Latin book to a side and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like: 'Well, you've tied the knot!' and then looked at them, expecting.. Expecting what?  
  
"Jareth, why is he looking at us as if he was waiting for us to do something?" she wondered when she took a close look and noticed something even more disturbing "Jareth, why is everyone looking at us as if they were waiting for us to do something?"  
  
The slight feeling of panic that had started to build up inside her grew stronger when the King of the Goblins lifted her chin with one of his gloved fingers and whispered, lowering his head towards hers.  
  
"How is every love-bound sealed in fairytales, Sarah?" he said. She was about to gasp in sudden realization when, out of the blue, his mouth was on hers.  
  
'And what a nice mouth that is' Sarah thought blissfully and then she opened her eyes wide 'Where the Hell did that come from?' she wondered when a sly voice answered her: 'Probably form the same place from where your reaction of kissing him back and entwining your hands in his hair came from'  
  
'What?' Sarah wondered when she noticed that the little nagging voice was right. She was actually in the arms of her nemesis kissing the daylights out of him. His hands had made their way to her waist but one of then had ventured farther and was now delightfully stroking the small of her back in circling, rhythmic movements. For just a moment she was taken by his kiss, the feeling of warmness, security and passion his arms provided her and the thought that they would be joined forever. She wondered absentmindedly how he had learnt to incite such contradictory and powerful emotions, while she sighed, unwittingly giving him full access to her mouth.  
  
'He has had a willing subject to practice with, Sarah. Never forget that' the nagging voice whispered in her ear. That shattered the moment and the queen of angels pulled back from his grasp, panting for air and looking at him with a blank stare. But her eyes, traitorous little things, were shinning a very bright shade of red. A mixture of flames and red wine was the red, something unique and accuser. It was a mixture of anger (the flames) and. passion, as bittersweet as wine.  
  
"Changeling eyes" Jareth muttered into her ear "A rare blessing indeed"  
  
"Blessing?" Sarah spit back, knowing that her eyes were still crimson flashlights "Then why do I feel like if they were a curse?"  
  
With those words she swept past him and into the crowd of people, feeling stupid for having fallen for the Goblin King allurements.  
  
'Never let it happen again' the nagging voice inside her whispered 'Never'  
  
  
  
  
  
"We are supposed to be the merry soon-to-be-wed couple, Sarah, but I think that you are failing to give that impression" Jareth, King of the Goblins, hissed at his fiancée, sitting in her throne next to him. She looked sideways to him, her eyes now a cold icy color that rivaled Queen Augustine's, and replied stonily:  
  
"I've everything that has been asked from me. Just leave me alone"  
  
Her battle spirit seemed to have taken a break, and she felt so very tired. She was sick and tired of everything. The constant fighting, Lady Dalila's stupid attempt to get Jareth's attention, her fiancée's constant taunting, her conflicted emotions. it was too much too soon.  
  
She felt like if she were five and had gotten lost in the park, like it had happened to her when she had been a mere child.  
  
"Hush, Sarah, it is all over" her father had soothingly whispered to her when she had been found ""It's all over now, sweetie. Daddy's here to make it all good again"  
  
But there was no daddy that time; she was alone, horribly alone. As Sarah contemplated that, staring at the night through a window near her throne she spotted a shooting star making its way across the midnight-blue sky. Queen Augustine smiled at her.  
  
"Make a wish, Sarah. And, who knows. it may come true. Everything is possible on the Underground" she said knowingly. The Angelic Monarch smiled.  
  
"Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight. I wish. I wish they were here." she whispered hopefully and then held her breath for a second. two seconds. a minute. But nothing happened.  
  
There was no magic spark, no tingly feeling. No nothing. And Sarah sighed.  
  
"So much for getting my hopes up." she muttered under her breath. The band that was currently playing (a rare mixture of elves, centaurs and two pixies with flutes) changed the melody they were playing and Sarah's ears suddenly perked up. She knew that song. She knew that tune! She had heard it since she was five years old, for crying out loud!  
  
At first, she let her mind think that it was a coincidence or a hallucination of some sort. Maybe someone had copied the tune from Aboveground. Maybe. maybe.  
  
Damn, there were too many maybes for her liking.  
  
After a couple of seconds the song was followed by a very deep, male voice that reminded Sarah distantly of Frank Sinatra.  
  
  
  
"There's two things I know for sure.  
  
She was sent here from heaven, and she's daddy's little girl"  
  
  
  
Suddenly every noble in the room was aware of how rigid Sarah had become upon hearing the first lyrics of the song. They whispered among themselves, wondering who the mysterious singer could be.  
  
  
  
"As I drop to my knees by her bed at night,  
  
She talks to Jesus, and I close my eyes.  
  
And I thank God for all the joy in my life, But most of all..."  
  
  
  
"The whispers and gossips had risen to such a loud level that the Goblin King had to hit the floor with his cane to control it.  
  
  
  
"Butterfly kisses after bedtime prayer.  
  
Sticking little white flowers all up in her hair.  
  
"Walk beside the pony daddy, it's my first ride"  
  
"I know the cake looks funny, daddy, but I sure tried"  
  
Oh, with all that I've done wrong, I must have done something right.  
  
To deserve a hug every morning and butterfly kisses at night"  
  
  
  
  
  
Sarah went from rigid with shock to warm with happiness in less than five seconds. Her changeling eyes, which had turned the most mesmerizing shade of soft pink, like the colour of magnolia's, searched the crowd of people, looking for any sign of her enigmatic singer, but she didn't find him, much to her disappointment.  
  
  
  
Sweet sixteen today.  
  
She's looking like her momma a little more every day.  
  
One part woman, the other part girl.  
  
To perfume and makeup, from ribbons and curls.  
  
Trying her wings in a great big world. But I remember...  
  
  
  
Butterfly kisses after bedtime prayer.  
  
Sticking little white flowers all up in her hair.  
  
"You know how much I love you daddy, but if you don't mind,  
  
I'm only going to kiss you on cheek this time."  
  
With all that I've done wrong, I must have done something right.  
  
To deserve a hug every morning, and butterfly kisses at night.  
  
  
  
Jareth looked at her and, seeing the breathtaking tone her eyes had acquired, he felt a pang of envy. He hadn't made her that happy. and he never would.  
  
  
  
All the precise time.  
  
Like the wind, the years go by.  
  
Precious butterfly, spread your wings and fly.  
  
  
  
She'll change her name today.  
  
She'll make a promise, and I'll give her away.  
  
Standing in the bride room just staring at her.  
  
She asked me what I'm thinking, and I said, "I'm not sure,  
  
I just feel like I'm losing my baby girl"  
  
Then she leaned over... and gave me...  
  
  
  
Finally the singer made it to the center of the ballroom, where the huge staircase leading to Sarah and Jareth's throne was. He was a middle-ages man, dressed plainly in a poet's shirt and black trousers. He looked directly towards Sarah and a small smile graced his rather handsome features. To everyone's surprise the queen of Angels returned the smile as tears ran down her cheeks. She was laughing and sobbing at the same time. She stood up and titled her head, looking always at the man in front of her.  
  
  
  
Butterfly kisses, with her mama there.  
  
Sticking little white flowers all up in her hair.  
  
The singer and was Sarah the person that started singing:  
  
  
  
"Walk me down the aisle daddy, it's just about time.  
  
Does my wedding gown look pretty daddy?"  
  
  
  
She looked at the salty stream of tears grazing the man's cheeks and smiled tenderly.  
  
"Daddy don't cry" she sang, almost in a pleading manner. The man smiled back at her and took up the song where she had left it:  
  
  
  
"Oh, with all that I've done wrong, I must have done something right.  
  
To deserve a hug every morning, and butterfly kisses.  
  
I couldn't ask God for more, man, this is what love is.  
  
I know I've gotta let her go, but I'll always remember.  
  
Every hug in the morning, and butterfly kisses."  
  
  
  
"You. you look lovely, my dear" the man whispered, wiping away tears "Like the true Queen you have always been, though you hid it from me all these years, just to spare me the pain of knowing that, someday, I was going to let you go"  
  
"But. Why? I don't want you to let go!" she cried, her eyes turning a passionate shade of violet a mixture of pain and love.  
  
"I don't want either, Sarah. And I'll always be there for you. That's why I came"  
  
The strange man opened his arms wide and the queen, without doubting for a second, threw herself into his arms, wrapping her wings around him and burying her head into the silk of his shirt.  
  
"I've missed you.daddy"  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Author's Note: *Wipes tears from face* what a lovely scene. (Trying not to burst into tears) Anyway. sniff. This chapter is ten pages long, sort of a way to say how sorry I am for being a lazy author. Believe me, I suffer a huge case of writer's lock, but I do the best I can. The next update will probably be "the Damned and the Lonely" and, for those who are concerned about Jareth having a mistress, believe me that Sarah is going to take care of that little problem on the next chapter (wink, wink). See you soon all and have a nice day!  
  
Hugs an peaches from your author,  
  
Sabi (and her little muse, who wants some kind of credit for poking me and nagging me till I finish each chapter., nasty little thing. Ouch, stop poking me! *Sabi grabs frying pan and look menacingly at muse* I warn you, little bugger!) 


	10. Chapter Nine: Bedroom Companions and a T...

Chapter IX: Bedroom Companions and a Triangular little Issue: 

Sarah held her father strongly, tears running down her cheeks. She breathed in his sent, a mixture of sandalwood and aftershave that brought back memories of her childhood: her father teaching her how to cook so they would prepare together their first Easter meal, hanging mistletoe in the walls with the aid of her father during Christmas Eve, buying birthday presents with him for Karen. He was always clueless as for what to buy her that he ended-up needing her assistant as a 'female' to aid him. 

As memories flooded back she gripped his shirt tighter, as if she was afraid to let go of him. Gently he lifted her chin with one of his hands and smiled tenderly at him. 

"Stop crying, Aingeal" he pleaded softly; calling her by the nickname he had put her when she had been a little girl. Sarah smiled and poked him gently in the arm. 

"It's been a while since you called me that way. I've missed it" she commented lightly, stepping out of his embrace to take in his appearance. He was dressed fro the occasion and the only odd thing was the backpack he carried on one of his shoulders. It was filled with books and little bottles Sarah had seen before. 

"You used the family books!" she said brightly "I didn't think you had that kind of magic" 

Sarah had always been aware of her origins… She descended form a regal family of Heirs to the Angelique Throne, but she also belonged to a powerful magician family. Her father had received all his knowledge from his father, who had received it from his father in return and so on, so forth. Robert Williams was a man who had found the way to combine magic and normality in his life, well, at least till Linda Williams had waltzed into his life. From that moment on, it all had been a mess. But now, seeing his all grown-up little girl dressed like a Queen and looking as imposing and yet as gentle and as kind as the Queen he had always known she was inside made it all worth it. 

"Oh, well, let's just say that to pull this whole 'portal thing' off I had some help" he muttered as he showed her a single crystal feather that seemed more like a baby feather "I used the magic in this little thing" 

"This is mine… From when I was little" she said, surprise clear in her expression and her face. She cradled the baby feather tenderly, remembering the first time her wings had grown in her back and the first time she had changed plumage. It had been both terrorizing experiences for a girl who could barely talk, much less cope with the truth about growing wings in her back and missing mothers. Speaking of which... 

"Karen knows that you are here, dad?" the raven haired woman scolded softly, imagining an overly-anxious Karen Williams talking to every person who knew her father over the phone to try and discover his whereabouts. Robert Williams grinned and gestured to somewhere on the background of the ballroom. There, sure enough, was Karen, smiling and holding a grinning Toby in her arms. The little child squealed and wriggled in the arms of his mother, trying to get out of the embrace and into the arms of his sister. He finally managed to free himself from his mother and ran towards Sarah, knocking her to the floor with the impact of his hug. Both siblings giggled, not minding the fact that they were lying sprawled in the floor in front of what looked like the whole Underground nobility (looked and was, as a matter of fact) till she was reminded by a gentle cough from her father. 

"Sweetheart, I do believe we have company" he said pointedly, glancing at the group of gaping immortals. The girl sighed and stood up, helping her sibling do the same. Then she brushed off whatever dust the dress may have collected from the floor and pulled back her shoulders becoming the perfectly-mannered, indifferent monarch she had been all night. The transformation was obvious, for her eyes lost all their pinkish hue to become steel-grey, as if she was defying anyone to tell her off for her previous very un-queenly like behavior. Nobody dared. She smiled. 

"What are you doing here?" she asked her father, the grayish tint of her eyes softening almost to the point of becoming like a reflection of clouds after a thunderstorm. 

"It was my fault, Sarah, don't take it out on daddy, please" Toby interjected before Robert had time to reply "I wanted to see you so much and I didn't understand why you couldn't come home. And mommy wouldn't explain also, and I couldn't go to sleep and I wanted you to sing to me so I did what you told me to do on an emergency like that" 

He sounded proud all of a sudden but Sarah took one look at Karen suddenly accusatory glare and her father's demanding face and gulped. Whatever had she said? 

"What was exactly what I told you to do in case of an emergency like that, Toby?" she enquired carefully, very much aware that she was being strictly watched by a pair of mismatched, mocking eyes… Well, actually two pairs of mismatched eyes, but one pair was much too busy concentrating in certain stream of blood-red hair and icy stare to care that much about what the little boy was about to say. 

"You told me, and I quote 'Toby, whenever you want to see me and mom or dad won't tell you where I am, throw a tantrum in the middle of the room till they take you to where I am, okay?' So I did exactly what you told me" he answered with a grin, his eyes twinkling in a mixture of innocence and mischief. 

"I'm sorry" she apologized softly looking at her stepmother and then at her father... who wasn't exactly paying attention to her. He was starring intently at Jareth, lounging in his throne, twirling between his fingers one of her longest and more beautiful feathers, which glimmered in the light of the Ballroom. Neither one of the men were about to loose that staring contest they had locked themselves in and where silently challenging the other, coaxing him to give up. 

"Oh, my" Sarah whispered with wide eyes. Jareth stood swiftly and Robert Williams stood in front of both Sarah and Karen, as if he thought they needed protection from him. 

"You are him, aren't you?" he spat suddenly, placing one hand on the hilt of the sword that lay sheathed near his right hip "You are the Goblin King" 

He said those last words as if he had uttered the worst of curses, looking once behind at his daughter and then returning his murderous gaze at the fair-haired Fae in front of him. The words of Lindara, once he 'beloved' lawfully-wedded wife: "Don't get too attached to that little girl, Rob, for once she grows up she'll be used, just as they were pretending to use me, to restore things as the way they used to be, the way that was convenient for them. And, in order to do that, they'll sacrifice that toddler of yours... to the King of the Goblins himself" 

And there he was, just as she had described him: tall, fair both in skin and hair, with those mismatched eyes that seemed mocking, taunting and menacing all at the same time. He was slender but his very movement and posture spoke of unspeakable power that lay hidden within his lean body. His clothes and his face were showered in some golden dust he knew to be glitter and his features were almost feline in appearance, even his eyes seemed those of a lion, or a tiger, or some other predator, stalking their prey with patience and grace worthy of the most skilled Leannean Sidhe... for that was what he was. A Sidhe. 

Out of the corner of the eyes he took in the other kinds of Fae present. Fairies, vampires, hobgoblins, elves, centaurs, sprites, nymphs, gossamer spirits and other types of magical creatures (named commonly 'the Fae' as a whole). There were angels there too, but they were not considered worthy to be called Fae, so they remained partly separated, but ready to defend the one they considered mort precious above all... His daughter. 

Two figures caught his attention for a moment: one was that of a Sidhe that bore a striking resemblance to the one he knew to be King of the Goblins and High King of the Fae except that instead of golden hair he had a silvery-white mane framing his sharp features and instead of hazel and blue his eyes were grey and red. He was dressed in a silver frock jacket also, instead of the blue one that Jareth had on and he had something tattooed on a side of his neck. The other figure that had interested him was that of the woman that was besides the silvery-haired Sidhe: it was a petit young Lady, that seemed to be horribly young and ominously old at the same time, with an icy-look that could have frozen Hell itself in less than a blink, a river of straight, red-blood hair in which rested at the top of her head a diadem made out of some kind of quartz or crystal or something like that. She was dressed in a long, ice-blue tunic that narrowed at her waist and then flowed gently to her feet and fell to the floor in rich waves of satin. She was terribly pale, her skin colorless and her lips ruby red, covered all over with some silver dust that differed from the glitter that covered the Sidhe and most Fae and two beautiful dragon-like wings came out of her back, framing her beautifully as she stood, an arm slipped through one of the silver-haired man's arms, leaning her head in his shoulder, her expression indifferent. 

"That line seems to have become a William's Family tradition" the Goblin King sneered, attracting Robert William's attention again. The Fae took a step forwards and look down at the defying mortal in front of him "And I do so hate it" 

Sarah quickly grabbed her father by the shoulder and wrapped her wings around him, looking at Jareth with white-blue eyes. 

"Jareth don't!" she half-shouted, locking her gaze with that of the golden-haired man. She knew what he was about to do. He had seen it a thousand times before: with boneless grace he would rapidly conjure a sphere and hex her father into next week, except that she wouldn't let him. Her eyes acquired dark specks that were the reflection of her stubbornness. Even after eight or so years, she still defied him. Such a pity... 

"He is my father" she pleaded then, more softly, her eyes changing again, a pinkish hue tinting them. The Fae's eyes narrowed upon seeing that. Love, the love for her father shone the way that would never shine for him. He was mad with jealousy. 

"Sarah, how many times do I have to tell you not to defy me?" the King taunted softly, almost wincing when the pink vanished from her irises and was replaced by a color that was between red and black. It was hatred. That was all he got from her, all he could hope for from who was going to be his bride and his companion for life. 

"Don't you dare speak to my daughter like that!" Robert spat, his face constricting with rage "You will treat Sarah the way she deserves to be treated!" 

Karen shivered upon seeing the risk her husband was getting himself into but she took Toby from Sarah's arms and stood beside her stepdaughter. She had grown to love Sarah as her daughter and they seldom fought. She could remember one particular time when they had quarreled over her taking care of Toby while thy were out and she remembered vividly how Sarah had been so glad when they had returned, hugging her and her father and making them promise they would be there for her always, that would never, no matter what, stop loving her. They had promised and now they were there. And she was glad it all had turned out the way it had. She was going to support and stand by her little daughter. 

"And who are you, mortal, to tell me how I may speak to my fiancée?" Jareth enquired suddenly, making Karen gasp and Sarah flinch. But Robert William didn't seem surprised or discontent. 

"That promise was made years ago, and it's worth nothing" he reminded him "It was made without my consent and, besides Sarah is not a child anymore. It is her choice, not your and not mine either" 

Jareth nodded, folding his arms over his chest and regarding the man in front of him with frigid mild interest. Finally she looked at Sarah and whispered softly: 

"Yes, it is her choice. And she chose me" 

Now Robert Williams was surprised, and turned to his daughter in hopes that she would shake her head and deny everything and then stared at her eyes: they were translucent, without any emotions. 

She was hiding herself from him, and she had never done that before. 

"You don't understand" she finally said "Everything is poisoned" 

She unwrapped her wings from her father and then walked towards one of the huge castle windows. She leaned her hands and her upper body in the windowsill and stared at the Labyrinth. It seemed good under the moonlight but there were traces of withering vegetation and black, corrupted soil. Her eyes held sadness as she stared at it, knowing deep inside that it was all wrong. 

"It started in my kingdom, but it's rapidly spreading" she whispered to her father, who had walked to stand a few feet behind her "Magic is being tainted" 

But she knew even as he nodded that he didn't understand. She sighed and looked at Toby, smiling gently down at him. 

"Come here, little one. Do you want me to sing you a song now? Maybe that way you will fall asleep" she offered tenderly, cradling the boy in her arms while she sat down on the windowsill. He nodded absentmindedly as his sister stroke his hair gently. 

"I want you to sing my the song I like the most, Sarah" he pleaded suddenly with a voice already drowsy "The song you only let me hear" 

Sarah stiffened all of a sudden and she looked at her brother with mild fear, shaking her head. 

"Come on, little one, pick another song. I can't sing that song here" she half-whispered, her face pale. But the boy wasn't about to surrender and he yawned and replied that it was the only song that didn't fail to make him sleepy. He wouldn't be able to sleep with any other. 

"But, Toby..." the Queen protested weakly, but all she received in response was a pout and a softly-spoken: 'Please, pretty please sissy?' that finally ended all her arguments against the idea. She took a deep breath and softly begun to hum a melody, so delicate, so hunting that entrapped everyone in the room. Finally she opened her mouth and the words that came out of her seemed to float in the air, suspended by some miracle and as gossamer and as eluding as the gently mist that forms between the darkest of the night and the dawn of a new morning: 

  
  
Dancing bears,   
Painted wings,   
Things I almost remember,   
And a song   
Someone sings   
Once upon a December.   


Jareth's ears perked up at the sound of her voice but mostly it was the meaning behind the words she sung that somewhat intrigued him. It made him remember something but he wasn't quite sure what it was. He took some steps closer, as his ears registered the soft music on the background, music that could only be originated in the very heart of an angel. 

  
  
Someone holds me safe and warm   
Horses prance through a silver storm.   
Figures dancing gracefully   
Across my memory.   
  
  


A waltz... A never-ending waltz. Just a dream, a charade of reality, the only place he had fulfilled the need to have her in his arms. She was talking about it. The dancers twirling gracefully across the floor, their faces mocking her everywhere. Horses prancing through a silver storm... One of the Ballroom murals, one that she had eyed that time and was looking at that exact moment.

  
  
Far away,   
Long ago,   
Glowing dim as an ember.   
Things my heart   
Used to know.   
Once Upon a December.   
  
  


She picked Toby in her arms and gently lowered him to a chair nearby. He was fast asleep, his little hands tightened into even littler fists and a smile playing across his childish features. But there was no turning back now, not from that song. And she knew it. 

She saw him, and saw at once that he had understood. Damn him, for being present every time she made a fool of herself. Adrian gently bowed before her and offered her his hand, which she took and they began to waltz to the rhythm of the entrancing tune. But Sarah paid attention only to the cold pair of mismatched eyes, which followed her every movement with barely-contained rage. And she sung only at him, though not only for him: 

  
  
Someone holds me safe and warm.   
Horses prance through a silver storm.   
Figures dancing gracefully   
Across my memory.   
Far away,   
Long ago,   
Glowing dim as an ember.   
Things my heart   
Used to know.   
Things it yearns to remember.   
  
  


It hurt. It stung all over her body, the ache coming to rest finally in the pit of her stomach, making her want to double over and cry in pain. But she stood her ground and taking strength from where there was none she never stopped and never faltered, though she couldn't keep the hurt out of her eyes. It was pitch black softened by lilac, such a beautiful color for such horrible feelings. She felt her heart throb, and she held back a gasp, closing her eyes tightly shut. 

And a song Someone sings Once upon a December... 

Suddenly it was over and she stood there some minutes, leaning on her Advisor, and slowly walked away, pressing her back against one of the Ballroom's many columns. Jareth by now was seething with anger, practically growling, his teeth clenched as well as his fits partially occulted by the ruffled of his shirt. But just as he was approaching her, wanting an answer for what she had just done, dancing with another man when she was his, he paused by the window and what he saw reddened him speechless: his Labyrinth, his precious thing that he had watched slowly begin to corrupt and loose its lush appearance, was practically brimming with life and magic. The vegetation had returned to its usual green colour and had grown faster than light, covering the spaces that it had left naked after it had begun to die slowly. Roses had blossomed, their petals seeming luminous under the pale glow of the moon. The very walls of the Labyrinth seemed cleaner and glimmering in the dark, alive again and loving every minute of it. The grass was a bluish kind of green again and had covered every inch of corrupt soil, finishing everything off. 

Sarah had just healed his Labyrinth... And now was paying the price for it. 

"You foolish, foolish girl!" he growled stalking past Robert Williams and taking Sarah by her shoulders "Whatever are you trying to do to yourself?" 

She wouldn't look at his eyes and instead took a handkerchief that she had asked Adriana to fetch seconds ago and brought it to her lips as she coughed. When she finally pulled it away, it was soaked with blood. 

"I was trying to show him" she said, lifting her head in a royal gesture of defiance "I was trying to make him understand..." 

But Jareth didn't even let her finish, positioning two fingers beneath her chin to make her look at him even if she didn't want to. 

"Make him understand by what? Killing yourself?" 

"I'm stronger than that" the angel complained but the King had already picked her up in her arms and was carrying her off, in spite of all the struggling. 

"Always so damnable stubborn!" he said with a strange voice. Nobody moved as he left the Ballroom, followed closely by Adrian and Adriane and walked straight into Sarah's bedroom, placing her in the bed softly. By now she was barely conscious. 

"Leave" he ordered the two angel advisors, never staring back. Though they were tempted they didn't put up any resistance, knowing that the King was not in the mood to be trifled with. 

He deftly touched her forehead, feeling the pain she was feeling and wincing snatched his gloved hand away from her. She could deal with such pain, she was an angel, but he barely had angelic blood in his system to put up with such levels of ache. But as his hands were urging him he tried to touch her again, but she instinctively recoiled from his touch, turning her head to the other side and frowning in her almost sleeping state. 

"So cruel, even in your dreams. Kind to the rest, yes, but cruel to me, Sarah" he whispered. Without another word he walked towards the door and out of the room. Adriane hurried in to get her Queen into a nightgown and Adrian stood by the door, while Robert Williams found himself face to face yet again with the King of the Fae. 

"If she wakes up tonight, would you tell your sister that I want her to know that I understand?" he softly asked the silver-haired advisor, who nodded. 

"You can tell my sister yourself, Sir, for she will escort you and your family to a set of chambers that have been arranged for you" he answered softly. As if in cue Adriane walked out of the Queen's chambers soon after and asked Robert, who was carrying Toby and Karen to follow her. The man did so but Sarah's stepmother stood there some more time till her husband was out of earshot and then turned to Jareth: 

"You may fool yourself and you may also fool Sarah, but don't think that for a second you are fooling me. I know what you feel... for her, I mean" 

"And how would you know that, mortal? He sneered crossing his arms over his chest in an arrogant movement. 

"Call it a motherly instinct. But I know and I just hoped it all turns out well in the end. She deserves it and I think you do too" 

And soon the King was left by himself in front of his future bride's chamber door. He gingerly pressed one of his palms, which was suddenly ungloved, to the wood and then sighed. 

"Sweet dreams, my Angel of Music" he whispered before leaving him too. But no one saw the figure in the shadows, glaring intently at the door and at the spot where the fair Fae had been. The figure was dressed in a ball dress that actually managed to show more skin than dress and was livid with anger. 

"You may sing and charm him all you want during the day, you stupid angel" Dalila said, a smile suddenly coming to her lips "But during the nights he is all mine" 

And with that she teleported herself out of the hall. 

  


Sarah twisted and turned in her bed, dark images plaguing her dreams. She felt some kind of weight pressing against her ribcage, making her to gasp and pant instead of breathe. She cried weakly in her sleep, protesting and trying to be rid of the darkness that threatened to engulf her. She clutched the bed sheets, holding back a scream. She felt as if someone was trying to tell her something, but couldn't quite grasp the warning. The shadows crept closer, sporting menacing blades and knives, as if prepared to jump at her and stab her to death any moment from now. Sarah eyed them wearily, stepping back, knowing though that there were shadows back there too. What started like a cautious walk ended up as a frantic run as she tried to avoid the darkness that suddenly closed down on her, raising their weapons in the air and letting them fall mercilessly to her body... 

"No!" 

She woke up with a start, immediately sitting up in the bed and holding a hand, trembling and abnormally pale, to her heart. She knew her forehead was covered in perspiration and that she was shivering in spite of the satin sheets and velvet bedcover. She glanced around, briefly pleased and reassured when she noticed she was in the safety of "her bedroom", so to speak, but that reassurance was short lived for, at the end of her bed shadows crept, waiting their turn to attack. 

"Who is there?" she called out in a voice she hopped wasn't shaky and drew the covers over her trembling body, wrapping her wings around her as well. She eyes the door surreptitiously calculating if she would be able to reach it before they caught her, and then, screwing all calculation made run to the door, but at the last moment she turned and leaped into the balcony with the huge French door that were open and then extended her wings and let herself fall into the thin air, that surrounded her, chilly and oddly refreshing. She flapped her wings and looked back, knowing that the shadows would find the way to follow her. Deciding that it wouldn't be wise to leave the castle's surroundings but, knowing she had little chance to loose them there so she bolted towards the only place were she knew she could hide: 

The Labyrinth. 

She flew swiftly to the twisting walls, hiding beneath their own shadows as she. Without touching the floor she passed through the Hedge Maze, through the forest were there was one of the few lights that could be seen in the maze: the bonfire around which the fireys danced, randomly stopping to play crocket with the most unusual set of legs and heads. They actually looked up and winked, throwing their heads in the air so she could listen when they said "'Allo, miss!" She smiled slightly but flew past her as quickly as her tired wings would allow her. She was too weak from healing the Labyrinth to be dashing about in the middle of the night. 

"Well, I have to options: or be here, six feet above the ground or later be six feet under" she muttered under her breath, gliding through the clouds, trying to turn to the castle again. She recognized the Bog by its smell rather than by sight and the big tree near the bridge where she had met Sir Dydimus first. 

Filling the joints that kept the bones (however invisible they were) of her wings united protest for such an exercise in the middle of the night after having all her energy drained off using her healing powers the angel understood that time was running short and that she had no alternative but to try to enter the castle as quickly as she could. Unfortunately the shadows were getting nearer and nearer till she found herself in front of a closed window. Instinctively to avoid the impact she threw her hands in front of her face but was surprised to hear the glass shatter before she made contact with it. She fell to the stone floor of the castle, covered in thousands of shards of the finest crystal she had broken somehow. The shards dug themselves into her the palms of her hands, into her body and feet but she picked herself up from the floor, refusing to give in after all she had been through. She looked at her surroundings and felt danger creeping behind. The only way she had of protecting herself was a shield she could create as a defense, but it wouldn't last much. She couldn't call on the Great ones either, for it would take all of her remaining energy and would most surely leave her unconscious and helpless. 

When she saw a huge oak door something inside her told her it was Jareth's chambers the ones on the other side of the wood. Her heart felt suddenly light again and she touched the bronze handle carefully, glad when she realized it wasn't locked. She carefully pulled the heavy door open, noticing it didn't creak or groan. But her eyes registered several things more interesting than that, things that made her stomach churn and her head feel dizzy and confused. A red dress lied carelessly tossed on the floor, along with a pair of breeches, a white silken shirt and... a blue, glitter-showered frock coat. Her eyes left the floor to immediately gaze towards the bed, where a very much naked Dalila played with a lock of golden fair hair, while Jareth, his serene face and closed eyelids indicating he was asleep, had an arm wrapped around Dalila's narrow waist. Her heart stopped beating and a cold sweat covered her already bruised and tattered body as she wondered madly what was one to do in situations such as that one. 

She closed the door quickly glad when she realized Dalila hadn't noticed her and made a run for the passage that stretched itself at her left, that led her far away from what she had seen, far away from those to points of the twisted triangle she had been forced to form. She found herself then in a large, open hall filled with portrait and instinctively knew she was in the Portrait Gallery. She grabbed a sword that was pinned to the wall with its twin companion as a decoration and nailed a shadow to the wall in the place in-between two stone blocks that formed it. With movements too nimbly to belong to a person that had suffered a night as hectic and as exhausting as she had Sarah took the other sword and slashed every dark figure she saw, moving by instinct and sensing rather than thinking. But they were way too many shadows and she was so tired... Her movements finally weren't fast enough and she bit her lip as she felt the sword she had been previously holding slip from her grasp and then stab her left wing, remaining there as someone twisted its hilt to move the blade of the weapon inside her flesh. 

She screamed then, her voice filling the silence of the night, a scream that came from a thorn heart and that was able to freeze her attackers for a couple of seconds. When they were capable of moving again they grabbed her by the waist and sent her smashing against a wall, her wings receiving all the impact. She fell to the floor, not sure which way was up and which down but registered the sudden burst of light that was caused by a crystal that reflected the pale light of the moon that streamed from an open window in the Gallery. The crystal burst into a thousand pieces as it touched the shadows, which screeched and squeaked as they disappeared, till only their comrades that had been killed by Sarah with the use of a normal weapon remained as corpses and proof of the angel's ordeal. 

She looked up, her eyes deep blue from all the pain she felt finding a mismatched gaze, sharp features and wild golden hair attached to a lithe body she knew too well. 

"My God" she heard that cultured voice whisper with barely concealed anger and worry as he knelt besides her "What have they done to you? What has happened?" 

'You happened, Jareth!' Sarianka thought silently, avoiding his touch as if he had the plague or something 'You happened!' 

But when he inched closer to her and she felt the warmth of his body as he said softly, as a caress 'My precious one' with a voice that seemed filled with some kind of longing pain she couldn't fight herself anymore. She was too tired and too confused. She forgot that triangular little issue that separated them for a while and threw herself into his fiery embrace, letting tears finally make their way down her cheeks as she clung to the Goblin King, who returned the favor by slipping his arms around her, rocking her back and forth as his mouth kept whispering those same, damnable words that had cost Sarah her pride and her dignity: 

"My precious one" 

  


Author notes: Wow! I totally love this chapter! It had a depth I didn't think it would have but it all came to me as I kept writing. In two days I wrote ten pages of this chapter and those were the best pages I've written in this fanfic (well, in my opinion of course). Well, I did promise you would have this chapter soon and, considering the usual time that passes between post and post I would say I did pretty well with that promise. Well, I put my heart and soul in this chapter, or at least tried to make it as good as I could so you would fill that it was worth the wait. Well, please tell my if I accomplished my goal and bear with me, for I have TONS of homework, plus an oral, a portfolio for math (took me 13 pages but it's finally done), a research of Malcolm X, three tests (and I have to sleep and eat too, remember that). 

Well, see you around. I'll try to post as soon as I can, but you know how that can be up to maybe a month (muse hits me with stick for saying I wouldn't pay attention to her for over a month). Hey, you go and do my homework and I'll gladly write! The problem is you would only get me ceros! (More poking and hitting for poor author). That's it! I am soooo going to tell this to your superiors! (Reader understands that Sabina finally went mad and silently tries to get away without being noticed). 

See you soon! Best wishes, 

Sabi (a.k.a. School slave) 


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